Get Off Jeff Gannon's Back

by Steve Young

I am so sick and tired of the battering of Jeff Gannon, or whatever his name is.

The people on the left who just can't get over losing the last...well, the last everything, have jumped on this poor guy like a starving liberal lioness who spots an inexperienced, so-called journalist with a sordid background who gets White House access where he gets called-on by President Bush in secured press conferences antelope that's been separated from the herd.

They say AKA Gannon has no journalistic credentials and worked for nothing more than a political activism website run by Republican Party activists. Gee-elite-media-whillikers. You might as well say that infotainers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, who have no real news experience or academic background, can't accurately dissect complicated issues and tell millions of fans what they should think.

What is being drowned out in this screaming for Gannon's head and pen and gay military escort websites is something special he has given all of us incompetent ne'er-do-wells. Something we may have never known if not for Jeff's nerve in breaking up the skilled, news professional, old boy's club. He has given rise to a realm of possibilities where only hopelessness lived. No longer will inexperience or egregious bias keep us from becoming useful cogs in the dissemination of government- issued information.

The White House must also make a principled stand. Explaining how and why Gannon was able to get security clearance is just another attempt by the anti-American liberal media to force disclosure of classified information. It's as awful as trying to hang Robert Novak for outing a former undercover federal agent and endangering untold lives around the world.

And when will we realize instead of shaming Gannon for his efforts, we should be thanking him for unlocking the closet door of the unqualified? Let us not ask "How the hell did an inexperienced, so-called journalist with a sordid background get White House access and called-on by President Bush in secured press conferences?" Instead let's ask, "Why can't we?"

While Gannon has been summarily dismissed from the White House Press Corps, there are still so many questions left unasked. Who in the liberal- anti- gay- military- escort media will step up and grill President Bush with the questions everyone else is afraid to touch? Here are some questions that Jeff Gannon sadly never got to ask:

"Your administration is the greatest thing that's ever blessed God's green earth. Could you expand on that?

"People who say you said the reason you went in to Iraq was because of the WMDs, Iraq's dangerous ties to Al Qaeda, and impending nuclear attacks from Iraq, obviously applaud the rape rooms of Saddam. Yes?

"There are rumblings that Hillary Clinton may run for President in 2008. Is there room in the budget to resurrect the Whitewater scandal to find out why she killed Vince Foster? I mean, if she did. Could you also comment on the size of her calves?"

"Democrats hate religion and urinate on God. Do you have any idea why?"

"Jon Stewart continues to trash Robert Novak for just adhering to his God-given, constitutional right to keep his sources private. Can you or Attorney General Gonzales explain why Comedy Central hasn't been shut down under the Patriot Act?

"Could you tell us again how much you won the last election by? And which 'war hero,' who gave hope to the North Vietnamese to carry on the war 'way longer and endangered the lives of POWs, lost?"

"If I just saw Helen Thomas take an extra croissant from the buffet table but don't want to say so on camera, who do I report that to?"

"Gosh, you look really ripped today. What time do you get off? And I have a follow up."

"How do you know if you don't try it?"