Not That I Personally Have Anything Against Consorting With Male Prostitutes

So Paul Kiel at TPMmuckraker put a piece up today on the White House's continued refusal to release records about visits by Abramoff & Jeff Gannon/James Guckert:

Well, now it appears doubtful that the White House will ever turn those records over. We may never know how many times Abramoff really visited the White House... or who Jeff Gannon/James Guckert, the male prostitute and White House correspondent, met with there. The White House has records that would show all that. But in a departure from the policy of the Clinton White House, the Bush administration seems determined to keep them forever out of public view...

...But the WAVES records should also provide more details of James Guckert's many visits to the White House, beyond the simple times of entry and exits, as were disclosed in ACRs turned over last year as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request to the Secret Service. The FOIA request was filed by Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and John Conyers (D-MI). They also filed a FOIA request with the White House's Office of Administration for Guckert's visits. But they never got a response. I incorrectly reported last week that they had.

Okay. This is really simple. All we need is one White House correspondent to ask during the press gaggle, "Judicial Watch, along with two Congresspersons, report that the White House is refusing to release records about visits by Jeff Gannon aka James Guckert & Jack Abramoff. Why does the White House refuse to clear this up?" If Tony Snow claims he need to discuss this with staff, ask again the next day.

Then, no matter how he obfuscates, you've earned the right to put up the headline, "White House Stonewalling on Abramoff, Prostitute Visits." I'll even give you the first couple sentences of this front page article: "Did President Bush personally meet with Jack Abramoff? How about a gigolo? These are the questions that the White House refuses to answer."

And the best part is, it's not even "have you stopped beating your wife yet," because it may actually be TRUE. Would this be great journalism? No, it smacks of extortion a bit, at least the way I just set it up. But at the same time, it seems like no one's really thought about the fact that the White House still refuses to confirm, deny, or comment on visits by A PROSTITUTE. That sort of cuts down on the whole "family values" thing a bit, doesn't it?