Unbecoming Gannon: The Plame Memo
Jeff Gannon's blog has mostly clammed up on the subject of Karl Rove since my post of a week ago.
I've been rereading earlier Gannon posts, though, and finding their language and range of political and historical references fascinating. How did James Dale Guckert, an auto body shop office manager and male escort in his mid-40s, who seems never to have written anything in all his life -- who was said never even to bring up politics in casual conversation -- arrive in Washington, and within a few months become an eloquent political writer/operative, channeling with exactitude Karl Rove's worldview, rhetoric, and interests (especially his desire to defeat Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle)? I suspect it began with a call from the White House to a 900 number, and a subsequent Pygmalion-like makeover of the unsophisticated fuckbuddy.
In May 2002, during a period when his occupation and address are otherwise a mystery, Guckert-Gannon floated his first nonsexual web site, "The Conservative Guy." It reads not at all like the calling card of an aspiring political writer. Rather, it's patently a direct-mail artist'sastroturf creation --a Rove-smarmy appeal to swing voters:
"Welcome, fellow conservative!
"Who, me? A conservative?"
"Yes, YOU! You are a conservative and don't realize it. The label makes you uncomfortable. Conservatives are those mean guys you see on the TV news, right?
"For a long time the national media and Hollywood have portrayed conservatives as mean-spirited and narrow-minded. Conservatism has been so demonized that many people are reluctant to associate themselves with it. I felt that way for a while, wincing when I heard one news story after another about the "extreme conservatives". But I'm not a mean person, and the values I have are the same as those of conservatives. So how was I made to feel guilty about my values?
"Every day, more and more Americans are realizing that they have conservative core values. The September 11 attacks have awakened many of us to realities that have been obscured by those who promote a liberal agenda.
"I'm asking you to take an inventory of your political beliefs.
"CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY!"
Later, "The Conservative Guy" describeshimself, again in fluent direct-mail-ese:
"Who is The Conservative Guy anyhow?
"In many circles, I have become known as "the conservative guy". Some people don't remember my name because I am an average type guy. In the course of my life I have been a preppie, a yuppie, blue-collar, green-collar and white-collar. I've served in the military, graduated from college, taught in the public school system, was a truck driver, a management consultant, a union member, a fitness instructor and an entrepreneur. In short, I've been around. Kind of a "been there, done that" thing. I'm a two-holiday Christian and I usually vote Republican because they most often support conservative positions....
"...and what is he trying to do?
"I believe there are many men and women in America who are conservative. Many more than one would imagine. Many more than would think of themselves as conservatives. When I meet people, and the conversation turns to politics, as it always seems to with me, some of them sheepishly confess that they are Republicans or that they agree with the opinions I have just spoken..."
It's Gannon's role in the CIA agent outing investigation, however, where his useful-toolness to the White House reached its apotheosis. A poster to dailykos.com has a timeline ofGannon's embedding in "l'affaire Plame ," making the case that the memo was given to Gannon in October 2003, after other reporters had proven unwilling to advance the White House spin, "to push the dual stories that a) Plame's name was already common knowledge and therefore `outing' her was not a crime and b) to continue to help discredit the CIA and Wilson."
The comprehensiveBecomingGannon blog theorizes that Gannon may have received the classified intelligence report, or a description of it, from Grover Norquist, at whose Wednesday klatches Gannon was a regular. As BecomingGannon notes, Gannon himself has blogged that he began talking with Joseph Wilson in September 2003, though their actual interview took place in October.
Among his contradictory statements on the memo, Gannon has claimed on at least one occasion that he received the memo from a source outside the administration. It's worth quoting at length from his post from earlier this year (bolding is mine):
"A memo written by an INR (Intelligence and Research) analyst who made notes of the meeting at which Wilson was asked to go to Niger sensed that something fishy was going on. That report made it to the outside world courtesy of some patriotic whistleblower that realized that a bag job was underway. Novak's column 15 months later only confirmed what some already knew: Valerie Plame, a CIA employee had actively promoted him for the task.
"I believe Plame was exposed at this point far sooner than the timeline Wilson suggests. The classified document that slipped out sometime after the meeting put her name before the public, albeit a small group of inside-the-beltway types, but effectively ended the notion that she was still covert.
"Despite his deception, I was pleased with the interview until I read a front page article in the Washington Post on December 26, 2003 that said the CIA was angry that an INR report was circulating, mentioning Talon News as having written about it. The source said that the document was false and that whoever wrote it could not have possibly been at any such meeting.The Senate Intelligence Committee also blew that nugget of disinformation out of the water. The INR report was right on target. What is difficult to understand is the reason that the CIA would want to discredit this report.
"The first clue came when the agents from the FBI came to my home in March 2003 [sic; he means 2004] to question me in connection to the leak probe. I was flattered to think that I was important enough to be included among the luminaries like Andrea Mitchell, Tim Russert and Chris Matthews who were also named in a Justice Department subpoena of records from the White House. But most of the questions were about the INR report. They wanted to know where I got it and what I knew about it. Of course, as a journalist there wasn't much I could say without revealing my sources. I'm sure they were not satisfied, but it made me wonder why they were so interested in a document the CIA said was false."
I've been rereading earlier Gannon posts, though, and finding their language and range of political and historical references fascinating. How did James Dale Guckert, an auto body shop office manager and
In May 2002, during a period when his occupation and address are otherwise a mystery, Guckert-Gannon floated his first nonsexual web site, "The Conservative Guy." It reads not at all like the calling card of an aspiring political writer. Rather, it's patently a direct-mail artist's
"Welcome, fellow conservative!
"Who, me? A conservative?"
"Yes, YOU! You are a conservative and don't realize it. The label makes you uncomfortable. Conservatives are those mean guys you see on the TV news, right?
"For a long time the national media and Hollywood have portrayed conservatives as mean-spirited and narrow-minded. Conservatism has been so demonized that many people are reluctant to associate themselves with it. I felt that way for a while, wincing when I heard one news story after another about the "extreme conservatives". But I'm not a mean person, and the values I have are the same as those of conservatives. So how was I made to feel guilty about my values?
"Every day, more and more Americans are realizing that they have conservative core values. The September 11 attacks have awakened many of us to realities that have been obscured by those who promote a liberal agenda.
"I'm asking you to take an inventory of your political beliefs.
"CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY!"
Later, "The Conservative Guy" describes
"Who is The Conservative Guy anyhow?
"In many circles, I have become known as "the conservative guy". Some people don't remember my name because I am an average type guy. In the course of my life I have been a preppie, a yuppie, blue-collar, green-collar and white-collar. I've served in the military, graduated from college, taught in the public school system, was a truck driver, a management consultant, a union member, a fitness instructor and an entrepreneur. In short, I've been around. Kind of a "been there, done that" thing. I'm a two-holiday Christian and I usually vote Republican because they most often support conservative positions....
"...and what is he trying to do?
"I believe there are many men and women in America who are conservative. Many more than one would imagine. Many more than would think of themselves as conservatives. When I meet people, and the conversation turns to politics, as it always seems to with me, some of them sheepishly confess that they are Republicans or that they agree with the opinions I have just spoken..."
It's Gannon's role in the CIA agent outing investigation, however, where his useful-toolness to the White House reached its apotheosis. A poster to dailykos.com has a timeline of
The comprehensive
Among his contradictory statements on the memo, Gannon has claimed on at least one occasion that he received the memo from a source outside the administration. It's worth quoting at length from his post from earlier this year (bolding is mine):
"A memo written by an INR (Intelligence and Research) analyst who made notes of the meeting at which Wilson was asked to go to Niger sensed that something fishy was going on. That report made it to the outside world courtesy of some patriotic whistleblower that realized that a bag job was underway. Novak's column 15 months later only confirmed what some already knew: Valerie Plame, a CIA employee had actively promoted him for the task.
"I believe Plame was exposed at this point far sooner than the timeline Wilson suggests. The classified document that slipped out sometime after the meeting put her name before the public, albeit a small group of inside-the-beltway types, but effectively ended the notion that she was still covert.
"Despite his deception, I was pleased with the interview until I read a front page article in the Washington Post on December 26, 2003 that said the CIA was angry that an INR report was circulating, mentioning Talon News as having written about it. The source said that the document was false and that whoever wrote it could not have possibly been at any such meeting.The Senate Intelligence Committee also blew that nugget of disinformation out of the water. The INR report was right on target. What is difficult to understand is the reason that the CIA would want to discredit this report.
"The first clue came when the agents from the FBI came to my home in March 2003 [sic; he means 2004] to question me in connection to the leak probe. I was flattered to think that I was important enough to be included among the luminaries like Andrea Mitchell, Tim Russert and Chris Matthews who were also named in a Justice Department subpoena of records from the White House. But most of the questions were about the INR report. They wanted to know where I got it and what I knew about it. Of course, as a journalist there wasn't much I could say without revealing my sources. I'm sure they were not satisfied, but it made me wonder why they were so interested in a document the CIA said was false."
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