Where was Peter King during the Gannon-Guckert days?

 --Following up yesterday’s post, quickly--Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has repeatedly called for congressional scrutiny of the two gate-crashers at the White House state dinner. King, ranking member of the House ‘Homeland Security’ committee, will hold a hearing on the matter Thursday. Witnesses have not been named.

 

(King’s most recent twitter feed:

“Back from Manhattan after taping Today Show and Fox & Friends regarding White House Party Crashers. Met with Lee Greewod @ Fox Studios. about 21 hours ago)

 

Catching a glimpse of King on MSNBC last night—he also appeared on Fox—I noted that he was heavily emphasizing the potential danger of such close unauthorized proximity to the president. The broad point is correct. President Obama was in no danger from these climbers from Virginia, but any unauthorized approach to the Chief Executive carries potential risks.

 

Thus it occurred to me to wonder whether Rep. King shared any concern back in the days of ‘reporter’ Jeff Gannon/James Guckert.

 

Gannon-Guckert, in case anyone has forgotten, was the pro-administration plant repeatedly credentialed as a journalist with day passes that got him into the White House from 2003 to 2005. He was nationally televised in a press conference with Bush in person Jan. 26, 2005, asking Bush an uber-friendly ‘question’ that marked him. Gannon-Guckert, with no background as a journalist, no employment with any print periodical, and seemingly a sideline that he advertised on homosexual escort service web sites, had seemingly unlimited access to the White House, access provided by whom?--we still don’t know, and how?—also not known. White House Secret Service logs later released show some of Gannon’s official entry and exit times missing.

 

So, in short, did Rep. King call for investigation, congressional or otherwise, into Gannon-Guckert?

 

Nopers.

 

King’s bio emphasizes his intense focus on terrorism and Middle Easterners. But there is no record, written or otherwise, that it occurred to King to call for investigation into the porous Bush White House between 2003 and 2005, when Jeff Gannon was a frequent visitor.

 

Apparently some White House interlopers are more equal than others.

 

On the other hand, Peter King did call for investigation into former ambassador Joseph Wilson after Wilson’s trip to Niger, according to Talon News articles by Gannon-Guckert posted at LightUpTheDarkness.org. Wilson gave an interview to Gannon. Jeff Gannon’s book, The Great Media War, still takes the neocon hard line that Valerie Plame was not covert, not outed, and not outed by Robert Novak.

 

Btw after I started looking up this Q, I noticed that someone commenting on John Cole’s blog also refers to Gannon.