Jeff Gannon first came on the national radar in early 2005, as the White House reporter who asked softball questions of the President and the Press Secretary.  Questions like:

"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. (Senate Minority Leader) Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And (Senator) Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there’s no crisis there. How are you going to work – you’ve said you are going to reach out to these people – how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?

That caused many people to ask "Who IS this guy?".  He was from a fly-by-night internet "media" organization called Talon News, which — as it turns out — was funded by GOPUSA, a Republican interest group.

But there are lots of conservative groups out there.  How did Gannon get a press pass, we wondered.

So bloggers started looking around, and it was mere hours before the rock was overturned.  Revelation time: aside from being a Republican stooge journalist, Jeff Gannon was also a $200-an-hour ex-Marine gay male prostitute, and his real name was Jim Guckert.

The story was fun for a while, but it soon faded.  But some questions remained unanswered.  A few blogs noted that the White House logs would show Gannon coming to the White House.  Gannon initially said it was because he was covering press conferences, but it was later revealed that no press conferences were happening that day. 

What’s more suspicious was that many times, the logs showed Gannon as "checking in" to the White House, but not "checking out".  Did Gannon have a White House connection?  Someone who got him a press pass?  Was that person his lover (or possibly a client)?

It’s all for titillating good fun back then.  And it might get fun again.

Karl Rove, long-time advisor to President Bush, announced his resignation today amidst rumors that a new book by a male homosexual prostitute would finger Rove as secretly gay.

Jim Gannon, former reporter for Talon News and rent boy, is publishing a "tell all" book in September tentatively titled "Behind Enemy Lines". Karl Rove apparently fears being exposed as a former customer of Gannon’s or his military pron websites like www.hotmilitarystud.com

It has long been rumored that Jim Gannon gained White House briefing room credentials and day passes by offering his services to Karl Rove, including several overnight stays in the White House Buchanan bedroom.

Of course, the source for that is the disreputable Talon News, the "media" site that originally hired Gannon.

Now, I don’t care — really, I don’t — if Rove is gay, or if he gave a press pass to a gay lover/hooker.  But Karl Rove has been the "architect" of Bush’s career and his closest advisor on matters ranging from Iraq to gay marriage.  He made neo-conservatism possible.  And one wonders how — if this book comes out and is true — Bush supporters (the same people who lambasted Clinton for his private indiscretions) will react.  Will they be apologists?  Will they continue to rally around Bush?

In any event, the notion of "bringing dignity to the White House", the rallying cry of Republicans in 2000, is pretty much a farce, yes?