By ADVOCATE STAFF CBS has put (once again) its credibility on the line and speculated that Karl Rove is the man responsible for bringing Jeff Gannon (James Guckert) into the White House.
Now, why would they say a thing like that?
Is it because Rove controls everything in the White House down to the lifespan of houseplants in the West Wing?
Or because it's a near certainty that, beyond the two men meeting at a White House Christmas party--as Gannon has already asserted--Rove and the ex-Talon News "reporter" have likely crossed paths on other occasions, too?
Well, let's see.
Karl Rove is a graduate of Morton C. Blackwell's Leadership Institute.
So is Jeff Gannon.
Rove went to the Institute's "Youth Leadership School," graduating from that grist-mill of conservative quackery in 1979.
Gannon went to the Institute's "Broadcast Journalism School," graduating (to the extent $50 in cash enabled that "achievement") in 2003.
Both "schools" cost substantially less than a bargain-basement television set, and provide approximately the same degree of instruction in critical thinking. [See website].
The Leadership Institute Gannon (and Rove) graduated from has an Employment Placement Service/Intern Program which, according to the Institute's solicitation to prospective "students," "open[s] doors for you which would otherwise remain shut."
And how!
The "Intern Program" boasts "weekly private dinners with Washington VIPs," including (as a sampling, from the website) Fox News commentators, Reagan Administration officials, former Republican U.S. Attorneys General, and sitting U.S. Members of Congress (e.g., Representative Tom DeLay [R-TX]; former House Majority Leader, Dick Armey [R-TX]).
And perhaps -- [gasp] -- former graduates of the Institute, like Karl Rove?
Hell, if "The Texas Hammer" can make time for old friend Morton C. Blackwell, why can't "the boy genius"? After all, doesn't Blackwell serve with Rove on the Advisory Board for the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project? Didn't Blackwell, according to the conservative Washington Times, "train" Rove to become the virulent little blackguard he is today?
Says the Institute's website, "on a weekly basis our interns meet with some of the conservative movement's top 'movers and shakers.' These dinners are prepared and served to our interns and their private guest."
The Institute also crows about the fact that, each week, "[Institute] interns correspond with, meet, and have dinner with top conservative leaders. From Congressmen to Supreme Court Justices to heads of major public policy groups, interns receive personal mentoring on how to achieve success and make a difference in government, politics, and the media....[i]n addition to weekly speaker nights arranged by the Leadership Institute, interns are encouraged to attend issue briefings by other conservative organizations like the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation."
"Make a difference in the media" -- indeed!
And speaking of cushy internships, how about Jeff Gannon's "volunteer" position as a "reporter" for GOPUSA, which he acquired despite having no journalistic experience whatsoever?
[According to Daily Kos, the CEO of one of GOPUSA's sponsors, Campaign Secrets' Mark Montini, is also the Vice President for Programs at -- you guessed it -- The Leadership Institute. And if you check out the GOPUSA website, you can see that the only event on the GOPUSA "calendar" is a late September 2004 Silver Anniversary Gala for the Leadership Institute, featuring "special appearances by Leadership Institute graduates who have become star leaders over the past twenty-five years." Hmm, like Rove?].
And what if employers -- or, say, White House staffers, like Karl Rove -- want to find someone to "do a job" for them?
Easy!
According to the website's entreaty to prospective employers of Institute graduates (see here), "[the Institute's] free conservative job bank provides a pool of applicants from which to hire qualified candidates. Resumes arrive within 24 hours, so you can begin to fill open positions immediately. Our prospective candidates can fill every position from chief-of-staff to press secretary. We curb the frustration factor by supplying all the necessary information to make your selection process easier."
Wow!
Are you saying you can find a high-priced gay prostitute with an eerie military fetish to pose for more than two years as a credible White House "journalist" in less than twenty-four hours?
Oh Mort, you devil!
Imagine that: all it would have taken Rove was a single phone call or a click of the mouse to get hooked up with (no pun intended) journalist/prostitute (or is that "prostitute/journalist"?) Jeff Gannon/James Dale Guckert.