HotmilitarystudGate hits the fan

It looks like the allegations about Jeff Gannon, the White House "reporter" of being a hustler, may well be true. Americablog has the scoop. (Link NOT safe for work.) If those pictures aren't the same guy, then this is a case of mistaken identity on a scale not seen since Dickens.

I worry that this will just get shoved under the rug as being his "personal life," something of which I'm sure Monica Lewinsky will find very comforting. The White House Press Secretary says there's nothing wrong with a Republican hack sitting in on the press conferences because, "There are a number of people in the room who express certain points of view and cross the lines of advocacy journalism." He claims that Gannon passed White House security checks under his legal name, but that doesn't explain why McClellan referred to him as "Jeff," his pseudonym. A married woman isn't allowed to use a pseudonym, even if if is her own name.

So either the White House didn't notice that this guy used to be a hustler, suggesting serious inadequacies in the vetting process, or they didn't care. If they didn't daily claim the "moral values" high ground, this wouldn't be nearly the big deal it is. White House interns don't pull a salary. Do you think that if Monica Lewinsky was stripping to make ends meet, we wouldn't have been reminded of it every night?