Hey, folks ...
I just wanted to chat a bit about Jeff Gannon here in a thread that is not already too busy with speculation about some of the more surprising details of the story.
Mostly, I wanted to give some space to the following idea, which to me will end up being the crux of the Jeff Gannon story, whether or not our ideas about his personal life are true:
The political games being played here by the Bush Administration are a national security risk.
The news this morning is filled with stories about how Karl Rove, the White House political director, is going to have an even more influential seat in the administration than ever before.
I think this is a bit silly -- former Bush Administration officials and cabinet members all seem to agree that Rove basically runs the show, policy-wise and that all policy is driven by politics, down to the smallest of minutia. This is the "Mayberry Machiavelli" mentality that we have all heard about. To me, the Rove announcement just means that he gets more money and that his position as George Bush's right hand man is solidified and recognized in a formal way.
So, what?
What the Jeff Gannon story reminds us is that the Bush Administration really knows no limits when it comes to playing political games. I can't prove that the Bush political arm is responsible for placing Mr. Gannon, an uncredentialed, inexperienced journalist working under an assumed name, in the White House press room. But I think that, leaning on past knowledge, it is pretty apparent that this is what happened.
To the Bush Administration, these are just the games they need to play to stay in power. Deceit. Tricks. Subterfuge. Lies. No big deal. As George Bush said in the 2000 primary debates, sitting next to Senator McCain, it was okay to tell South Carolina voters that he had fathered a mixed race child with a black prostitute because, "That's just politics, John."
UPDATE: I'm not exactly clear on the details of the smear. I might be collating a number of unrelated smears into a single thing here. Commentor has additional remarks below.
But to me, it is more than just a game.
The Gannon affair smacks of a recklessness with matters -- not just of protocol -- but of state that are truly testing the limits of shock when it comes to politics.
Honestly, I do not care if he was a male prostitute. I don't care if he is/was gay. Frankly, I'm not convinced that prostitution is always an evil. And I'm absolutely positive that there is nothing wrong with being gay.
But the placement of Gannon in the White House press room was a reckless act. It was an act of carelessness and contempt for the system that I just do not understand and cannot accept.
We hear about secret "shadow" offices of Bush political appointees being set up at the Pentagon and other agencies, where they are charged with carrying out responsibilities normally the duty of career diplomats and professionals.
My guess about who is staffing these organizations?
More Jeff Gannons.
No -- not necessarily people operating under assumed names with backgrounds as unusual as his.
But people whose primary motivation is not serving the people, but running what has been exposed as -- not a government -- a political circus with Karl Rove as the ringmaster and George Bush as the boy king, seated on an elephant and led around the ring by clowns.
We have our entrusted our nation to these people and it is scary.
