Who let the gay escort into the White House press room?

In case you haven't been following the whole Jeff Gannon/James Guckert White House press room scandal (and why would you, since the mainstream news is ignoring it), head on over to AmericaBlog's coverage.

Jeff Gannon is the "reporter" in the White House press room who was known for lobbing partisan softball questions at Scott McClellan and George W. Bush. He worked for Talon News Service, a site funded and operated by Bobby Eberle, a Texas conservative who also runs the site gopusa.com. He also was suspected of ties with Tom DeLay and Karl Rove.

Some left-wing bloggers managed to out the fact that Gannon got his press pass under a pseudonym. His real name is James Guckert. This unusual practice of admitting a person into the White House under an assumed name naturally aroused some suspicions, especially when coupled with his ties to the GOP.

Gannon/Guckert then challenged anyone to dig up dirt on him. Guess what? Bloggers did. They discovered his affiliation with three gay porn sites, one of which was for a illegal escort service.

When confronted with the facts, Gannon/Guckert said that he was designing the sites for a customer, and at any rate, they had never gone live. Liar.

AmericaBlog was contacted by the real designer of those sites, who then informed them that he designed the sites FOR Gannon. Yes, Jeff Gannon/James Guckert was a male prostitute.

So someone in the White House press room approved Gannon/Guckert's use of a pseudonym for his daily press pass. This was AFTER it was discovered that he was refused similar passes for the House and Senate, arguably a lower security risk situation.

Watch Anderson Cooper tear Gannon/Guckert a new one at the Crooks and Liars asite.

Many people suspect another Karl Rove dirty trick, an effort to spread disinformation akin to the Armstrong Williams payola scandal. Gannon/Guckert denied it, saying he only met Rove once. Fine, except his boss at Talon, Bobby Eberle seems to be rather tight with Rove.

Tonight, a new connection between Talon News, GOPUSA and Karl Rove has been discovered. From Bobby Eberle's GOPUSA 2004 Christmas greeting:

"In particular, I'd like to thank Terri Hillhouse and the entire GOPUSA team for their drive, dedication, and support. I'd also like to send a special thank you to all those who personally provided me with their assistance, guidance, and friendship, including Kathleen Eberle, Bruce Eberle, Mike Hiban, Don Stewart, Paul Teller, Tim Goeglein, Stuart Richens, Matt Smith, Jen Ohman, Bob Johnson, Liz Sheld, Julie Cram, Phillip Stutts, Chuck Muth, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, and G. Gordon Liddy."

CNN has been covering this story a bit, but Fox has avoided it completely. John Stewart did a send-up of Gannon/Guckert last week and Bill Maher did a bit on Friday night. Today, the network news media has finally joined in on the story. Here's hoping that Rove and Bush don't get away with it this time.