Actually the background check never got into play. The reason why Guckert didn’t apply for a White House “hard” press pass is because he couldn’t meet the minimum standard, which is getting a Congressional press pass. The Congressional press pass requires approval by a sitting board of professional journalists, who didn’t approve Guckert’s application.

Soooooo.

No Congressional pass, no hard pass, off to the daily pass. Without the Congressional pass, Guckert doesn’t even warrant the detailed background check.

*shrug* that’s it. The only conspiracy I can see is the one where professional big journalists are preventing journalists for smaller venues from getting a level playing field.

It occurs to me that he did this in order to avoid an embarrasing background check. Sort of rules out some of those fly way over the shark pond theories, unless you are so far out as to figure out that they set it up this way to encourage my theory.

Curiously absent from Peretz’s essay is the long shadow cast by radical Islam on Liberalism itself. Islamism has already displaced Marxist Nasserism as the primary ideology of the Middle East and if demographic trends continue will displace the Left in Europe too. How will the aging men without books fare against the youthful adherents of the book which is the Koran? Will it still be possible for them to link arthritic arms and totter around in a parody of militancy?

A good point.

(Though given the fact that all his comment threads wind up being about B-list poets and crank theology, perhaps it could be said that we conservatives read too many?)

The central concern of the White House staff is the protection of the President. You can take for granted that every journalist is searched for weapons. Who cares that Gannon might have been a prostitute? What does that have to do with safety issues?

A number of years ago, some people made a big deal about serial killer John Wayne Gacy getting close to First Lady Rosalyn Carter. This concern was greatly exaggerated. Gacy, dressed as a clown, was hardly in a position to attack Mrs. Carter.

Frankly I thought the primary reason that Gannon got in on daily passes was that he was the only schlub that regularly applied for them. I assume most people prefer to go the credentialed route, so they wouldn’t have to stand outside the WH gates every day, so the number of times most people would apply for a daily pass would be limited.

By necessity the people involved with approving daily passes would be different from those associated with the hard (permanent) passes. After two years I’d find it hard to imagine people not getting to know one another.

If you’re a decent person, not a hard case over-egoed jackass, and is willing to act like a human being. I could easily imagine people being happy to help out.

*shrug*

ìI don’t think Gannon is part of any grand Rovian conspiracyî

How can you doubt that Rove is the Jedi Master controlling the Universe?

I think your decoder ring needs adjusting. Play the solitaire and all will be revealed!

ÖÖÖÖÖ

What theÖ. Help! I think I am being pulled into Mother Ship by a green energy beam.

Yes, but usually this means that they are still in the realm of reasonable speculation. In this case, they’re across the other border – both feet planted firmly in the insane.

Given a few days to cool off, their speculations may well retreat into “absurd”.

I was trying to make the point that even in the worst case scenario regarding Gannon it is no big deal. The nature of the blogs leads to speculation and guessing but in their desire to find something to hold congressional hearings on their speculations border on the absurd. I don’t think Gannon is part of any grand Rovian conspiracy but I think it is possible that he was let in on a daily basis because someone in the communications dept. wanted to balamce out the ideological scales in the press room. I doubt it myself but it is in the realm of the possible. I find it comparable to the Armstrong Williams situation.

But the Kos fanatics have taken what could be possible and they have jumped the shark. They prattle on about national security. I don’t know about you but I don’t think “possible” male escorts are high on the secret services danger list. I think they look for people who are violent, not kinky. Now the head of the Kos hive has created a bizarre connection of Gannon to both the Plame case and the TANG forgeries and Rove. His evidence, Roger Stones wife has a cuban accent! Aha, of course, how could I have been so blind not to connect the micro dots! I don’t think you could sell this drivel in a Hollywood pitch session and they have incredibly low standards. I think most of us have done some speculating on this site but it usually has some connection to reality.