http://www.nerve.com/regulars/rawnerve/018/

Andy Horwitz -- Nerve

When I found out that the White House had given an all-access press pass
to a gay hustler to lob softball questions at the President, I have to
admit my first question wasn't "How could this happen?" but "I'll bet it
was Rumsfeld." Just look at him. That chiseled jaw, the beady eyes. He's
got the steely good looks of the Marlboro Man and the twitchy
disposition of the severely repressed.
Over the years the defense secretary has displayed an uptight,
peevish disposition, a fussiness that borders on queeniness. Not to
mention the fact that he was a champion wrestler at Princeton. (I'm not
saying that all wrestlers buy their loafer lightener in bulk, but the
homoerotic undertones can hardly be ignored.) And a man who is past his
prime as a wrestler and military man might fetishize it, might be
nostalgic for the fleshy press of man-on-man struggle. A man like that
could certainly be attracted to the sort of gay hustler who ran and
advertised services on websites such as Hotmilitarystud.com and
Militaryescorts.com.
Jeff Gannon/James D. Guckert — whatever this guy's game is, he's
good. His recent appearances in the media have shown him to be
Clintonian in his ability to prevaricate and obscure the facts. I'm not
sure we'll ever know exactly how he got his gig at fake news
organization Talon or the full extent of his influence. He had an
internet radio show, he might have been involved in the leaking of the
Plame Memo, he has helped conservative anti-gay and anti-liberal
politicians throughout the country in one way or another.
But I keep coming back to the fact that someone, somewhere, must
have known about his sideline as a gay hustler. Because he wasn't a
journalist before he went to work for Talon. He wasn't a journalist
before he showed up at the White House. So who is it?
A few years ago I wrote a story for a gay porn mag called Torso.
Without thinking, I let them use my real name in the byline. When the
issue with my story came out I was terrified — what if someone I know
reads this dirty story? What if some friend of the family or my employer
finds out about this? Then, of course, I realized that they'd have to
actually buy Torso to know about the article. And if they were buying
Torso they were either gay enough to admit it or too deep in the closet
to say anything about it.
The Bush administration is known for its secrecy and its
insularity. It sees conspiracy around every corner and views the world —
in fact, the entire non-Republican part of the nation — as subversive
and calculating. It sees itself as constantly under attack from a
"liberal" media. This is a classic closet-case mentality. With so much
to hide and so much pressure to keep it hidden, one sees the outside
world as being ruled by the same duplicity and secretiveness that the
closet demands.
And there is certainly evidence that there are many closeted
Republicans in the Bush administration and beyond. Rumors abound about
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. And of course there
was the recent scandal — leading to the resignation — of Virginia
Republican Rep. Edward Schrock, who was recorded on gay sex chat lines.
And don't forget the recent suspicions around Republican California
Congressman David Dreier, the tenth most-traveled congressman in the
house — who seems to take his boyfriend with him on all of his
taxpayer-funded trips.
When we look at the Abu Ghraib scandals, when we look at the
recently released videotape of the nineteen-year-old marine in South
Carolina getting punched by his commanding officer and choosing to drown
rather than be humiliated in front of his peers, even when we look at
the recent "chaptering out" of Deanna Allen, the girl soldier who
wrestled her fellow soldiers and flashed her boobs, we are looking at
the sexual fever dreams of a repressed cultural imagination.
Someone, somewhere — maybe Rumsfeld, maybe Rove, maybe Bush himself
— knew who Jeff Gannon was. Someone, somewhere in the White House is hot
for guys and it scares the hell out of him. And they will pass laws
against gays and any other "unnatural" sexuality, they will "defend
marriage," they will revile Hollywood and the so-called liberal media,
they will stop at nothing to protect their own sense of identity and
self-righteousness. And as long as they are in the closet, the entire
nation is in the closet.
The strangest thing about coming out is that it really isn't that
bad. I mean, it's frightening at first, but then there's nothing to
hide. You have no more secrets, and if you don't have secrets you can't
be blackmailed, or bullied or held hostage to fear. Which I guess for
them is the scariest thing of all.
Imagine that, an America without fear. n°

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 13:41:26 GMT, "Jim," wrote:

http://www.nerve.com/regulars/rawnerve/018/

Andy Horwitz -- Nerve

When I found out that the White House had given an all-access press pass
to a gay hustler to lob softball questions at the President,

I cannot understand the gay-bashing being undertaken by the liberals. Aren't
they the ones who want gay marriages, gay adoptions, gay births, gay everything?

What is the big deal with the gay stuff?

Gosh, a guy asks a decent question and all the liberals in the world are down on
him 'cause he's gay.

John H

On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD,
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
Rene Descartes