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November 30, 2005
Liberals beef about "privacy invasions"
Ann Coulter is responding to attacks from what the liberals hope will become their version of the blond polemicist that we have come to adore by publishing an email from the woman who is trying to make a buck off her. The liberals are in an uproar because the email contains the anti-Coulter's address and phone number.
Funny, these same folks didn't have any problems publishing my phone number, home address, Social Security number and medical records online...
Posted by jeffgannon at 03:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Victory in Iraq
I received President Bush's "Iraq National Strategy" document early this morning. It is a compilation of the strategy that has been pursued since the the end of major conflict as announced by the President in his "Mission Accomplished" speech on the U. S. S. Abraham Lincoln in 2003.
It also includes a recitation of the accomplishments in Iraq that have gone unreported by the American media - in the same way the roaring economy was ignored and downplayed in 2004. The only thing missing from the document is a critique of the "fifth column" of the American media and their political soulmates in the Democratic Party.
The most important element of the strategy is the emphasis on victory. There is no "exit strategy" beyond the withdrawal of troops when certain objectives have been accomplished. The Bush administration has been consistent in this from the outset. But the liberal media elites will refer to is as such, hoping to give "cut and run" Democrats cover for their pessimism about the war.
Absent for liberal rhetoric about Iraq is the concept of victory. Last week, CBS Senior Politcal Editor Dotty Lynch wrote:
"Given the public's reaction and the White House's cave, it might make sense for other Democrats to follow Murtha on style if not on substance and come forward with a specific, clear and bold plan for bringing American troops home."
I'll overlook the propensity of those at CBS to give advice and assistance to the Democrats and make the point that Lynch's piece does not allow for the possibilty that victory can be achieved in Iraq. I'm not sure if it is the malaise that has overtaken liberals or their craven desire to see the American military defeated.
It is clear that victory in Iraq is bad news for the Democrats who are totally invested in defeat. Victory is all that will silence the "Bush lied" crowd, whose ranks swell every day as the result of media repetition.
Take the time to read the plan. Depending on your political viewpoint, you'll either be inspired or depressed.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 25, 2005
Making the list
This time of year is when lists of all kinds start to come out. I expect that I’ll be on a few more than usual this time around. The first for me in 2005 is Out Magazine’s “Hall of Shame.” For those who have never heard of it, Out is People Magazine for the same-sex crowd, with an extra helping of liberal drivel mixed in.
Except for one of the other six people to achieve the same distinction, I think I’m in pretty good company:
Pope Benedict XVI
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Best-selling and Award-winning Author Terry McMillan
Robert Traynham, Communications Director for Sen. Rick Santorum
Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn
For the record, also on the list is Fred Phelps, a particularly despicable creature who claims to be a man of God. He’s not.
Posted by jeffgannon at 03:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving 2005
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. It is a tradition where we as a nation pause to reflect on our many blessings. But it is important to remember that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by those who came to this continent in search of religious freedom. Their sacrifice and commitment to worship without fear or restriction is something that every generation since has struggled to preserve.
It is no less important today than it was 400 years ago to guard our right to religious freedom and to acknowledge God from whom all blessings flow.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2005
A good day in the war on terror
In addition to continuing to win the war against terror in Iraq, the United States court system dealt terrorists two blows here in America. Even though justice hasn't come swiftly, it has come surely.
Jose Padilla, the alleged "dirty bomber" was finally indicted three years after being arrested.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted of participating in an al Qaeda plot to assassinate President George W. Bush. Tuesday's court action makes him a leading candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Previous recipients include Yassir Arafat, Jimmy Carter and Mohamed El Baradei. It looks like Mumia Abu Jamal will have to wait another year.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2005
Washington Post reporter bemoans smear tactics
Howard Kurtz writes a column for the Washington Post called "Media Notes." In Tuesday's offering, he discusses a technique that he says allows politicians to smear one another by quoting what someone else said about their intended victim. Now Kurtz is a smart guy, but he didn't have to tax his intellectual prowess to provide such an astute analysis. He only needed to read the pages of his own newspaper to discover the tactic by which it gives rumor, speculation and baseless charges credibility by putting them in print. Old Media news outlets have begun reporting what internet sites post, regardless of accuracy, asserting that attributing it to others relieves them of responsibilty for its content. In this way, they can pursue their political agenda under the cover of simply reporting what others say.
It's not only dishonest, but it's also an indication of how little original reporting is being done by the Old Media. Mainstream journalism has devolved into little more than gossip and opinion with a few government leaks and talking points mixed in.
The two biggest stories from last year, both involving CBS (and Mary Mapes) were based on forged documents (Rathergate) and evidence stolen from a Pentagon investigation (Abu Ghraib).
Posted by jeffgannon at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2005
Matthews leads appeasement journalists
Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” can savage the 110-pound Michelle Malkin on the set of his television talk show, but believes President Bush is wrong to view terrorists as evil. In speaking to political science students at the University of Toronto on Sunday, Matthews suggested Americans should try to get to know their enemies better.
I was reminded of Karl Rove’s speech a few months ago to the New York Conservative Party when he said, “Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”
Outraged Democrats demanded an apology from Rove and the diligent political operatives in the White House press corps badgered Scott McClellan to disavow the advisor’s remarks. Matthews challenged guests on his show to say whether they believed Rove’s speech was “over the top,” the implication being that he thought it was.
Rove accurately described Matthews and his ilk who dominate the Old Media as well as the Democratic Party with which they are so inextricably entwined. These are people who have no will to fight and do whatever they can to undermine the efforts of those who do. Matthews undoubtedly shares John Kerry’s asinine vision of a “kinder, gentler war,” of diplomacy, sensitivity training and appeasement.
Sadly, Matthews isn’t alone, but typical of the Washington media elites. The stench of cowardice permeates the newsrooms and studios from which these partisans give aid and comfort to the enemies of America. These “journalists” regard their glory days as the period during which they were able to destroy support for a war and force the resignation of a president. They are working overtime to recreate both with Iraq and Bush, trying to fit current events into those templates.
The good news is that it’s not 1972 and the falsehoods promoted as fact today by Chris Matthews, Nancy Pelosi and Cindy Sheehan will not go unanswered like those Walter Cronkite, John Kerry and Jane Fonda were then. The New Media will make sure of that.
Posted by jeffgannon at 01:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dems “cut and run” from their own Iraq withdrawal plan
Last week, Democrat John Murtha, who has a reputation of strongly supporting America’s armed forces and is a decorated veteran himself, called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He criticized the conduct of the war and high-ranking members of the Bush administration. His words were greeted by cheers from the antiwar base of the Democratic Party and scorned by the White House and Republicans in Congress.
Both the President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney stepped up their pushback against Democrats over Iraq, describing Mutha’s proposal as a “cut and run” strategy. Cheney accused Democrats who say that Bush “lied America into war” of rewriting history. The escalation in the rhetoric culminated in a showdown on the floor of the House Friday night.
Republican leadership in the House scheduled for a vote on Murtha’s proposal in order to get Democrats on the record as supporting an immediate pullout. Members of the minority party strenuously objected to having been called on to back up their relentless criticism of the war and the President with action.
Several hours of rancorous debate ensued after which Democrats blinked – and voted down the immediate withdrawal of troops. In the end, Democrats would even “cut and run” from their own proposal to “cut and run.” This remains consistent with their lack of values, beliefs and vision.
Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore and the MoveOn.org crowd should be proud.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2005
All Roads Lead Back to the CIA
With Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s case against Scooter Libby in serious jeopardy as a result of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s bombshell revelation, it may finally be time to clear the media driven “scandal” out of way. As Libby’s legal team contacts Washington reporters to inform them that they might be called to testify as to “what they knew about Joe Wilson’s wife and when they knew it,” it is likely more of them will be coming forward to confess what many have believed for some time: Plame was not covert and no crime was committed by anyone at the White House in relation to this matter.
Perhaps when the Fitzgerald’s case completely crumbles, he will drop the charges and return to Chicago. Then the Congress can begin the overdue investigation into Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame and the Central Intelligence Agency. The trail begins with Wilson and his wife, but the road leads back to Langley. In fact, when other leak investigations begin that put reporters who published classified information on the spot, all roads will lead back to the bumbling bureaucracy that has become a political entity.
The CIA has been in declines for years, being undermined and politicized by the Clinton administration. It has become so ineffective in the intelligence game that the only thing it has been able to uncover recently is the location of the best Beltway cocktail parties. In lieu of its mission to thwart plots against the United States and its interests from foreign enemies, the agency trained its sights on the Bush administration. It has waged a jihad against the President and his conduct of the war on terror.
Clinton and his team purged or otherwise drove career agents from the intelligence service until all that remained were political creatures, but ideology is only part of the equation. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 exposed the CIA’s total ineffectiveness. The Wilson-Plame affair is a case study of the sorry and dangerous state of the organization responsible for America’s first line of defense.
Democrats have revealed their mid-term election slogan, attacking Republicans for a “culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.” But is it the CIA’s botched operation against the White House is the epitome of that mantra.
The selection of Joe Wilson for the mission to Niger is a prime example of cronyism, as it has been established that his wife, Valerie Plame suggested him for the job. Incompetence is evident at every turn. Wilson’s report was so irrelevant that it didn’t merit a written report. Plame’s area of expertise is reported to be weapons of mass destruction, but the agencies intelligence in that field has been virtually non-existent. The CIA was clueless as to whether Saddam Hussein had WMDs or not. The agency’s foolhardy choice of Wilson and its failure to have the publicity-seeking gasbag sign a non-disclosure agreement demonstrates a profound lack of competence.
Finally, the cover-up of these facts is the corrupt aspect of the affair. A whistleblower from the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) sent a memo to the White House documenting how an outspoken opponent of the President’s policy toward Iraq was chosen to gather information requested by the Vice President’s office. I was the first and maybe the only journalist to confront Wilson about this document and its contents. He issued a bald-faced denial during our October 2003 interview. The CIA tried to discredit the memo in a leak to Walter Pincus at the Washington Post that appeared in a December 2003 article. In July 2004, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed the accuracy of the document and chastised Wilson for his dishonest and misleading statements.
The CIA requested the investigation into the “leak” of Plame’s name as part of the effort to hide its own political operation. Wilson whined that his wife’s “covert” identity hade been blown but the CIA’s claim, made public as part of the indictment against Libby was that Mrs. Wilson only had a “classified” role with the agency. This is a far cry from the “covert” status Democrats and their Old Media amplifiers have been wailing about for two years. Ultimately, it will be determined that Plame’s association with the agency was not a secret at all.
In the meantime, the rogue element either still within or now outside the CIA is engaged in full-throated disclosure of classified information that threatens America’s war on terror. The Washington Post has recently published stories that appear to be gleaned from detailed volumes about the agency’s global counterterrorism methods of operation. These are treasonous activities being facilitated by reporters. The damage will be far more profound than naming a third-rate analyst and should be dealt with swiftly and severely.
Posted by jeffgannon at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Murtha's "Reporting for Duty Moment"
On Thursday, one of the few Democrats in Congress who had any credibility on national defense issues surrendered it to the forces of politics in suggesting America surrender to terrorism. Liberal media elites like Editor & Publisher's edtior Greg Mitchell called it a "Walter Conkrite moment", referring to the point in 1968 where the CBS news anchor determined that the United States had lost the war in Vietnam.
The White House didn't waste any time firing back, releasing a statement:
"Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer."
This is not a "Walter Cronkite moment" that will be the tipping point in turning Americans against the war on terror. It is John Murtha's Kerryesque "Reporting for duty moment" where a decorated veteran throws away the honor he earned on the field of battle for the ignoble cause of partisan politics. The truly saddest part of this is that he did it to futher the interests of the minority party, which is in the minority for a reason. It is the party of surrender and home to the blame America first crowd that includes the hateful Hollywood bunch and the radical activists who are doing whatever they can to make sure the United States loses the war in Iraq. In fact, Democrats believe their return to power depends on America's defeat.
The good news is that it's not 1968 and the Old Media doesn't control all of the reporting on the war. The New Media will not allow the Cronkite-wannabes like Anderson Cooper and Chris Matthews to undermine our efforts in the war on terror.
Posted by jeffgannon at 07:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2005
Watergate Reporter Torpedoes Case Against Libby
Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has delivered what may be a fatal blow to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s case against the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The key figure in the Watergate saga that brought down President Richard M. Nixon provided testimony in recent days that indicates a White House official other than Libby mentioned Valerie Plame’s association with the CIA to him weeks before Fitzgerald says the subject of his indictment “was at the beginning of a chain” of communications with reporters.
Former U. S. Attorney Joe DiGenova believes that the Special Prosecutor must now withdraw the indictment against Libby because the central premise of his claim has been refuted. He says that Justice Department rules specify that Fitzgerald cannot proceed with prosecution if facts material to the indictment are proven to be false. William Jeffress Jr., one of Libby's lawyers is questioning whether Fitzgerald will admit that he was wrong to say on TV that Scooter Libby was the first official to give this information to a reporter.
Fitzgerald’s indictment of only Libby after two years of investigation was a bitter disappointment to the Old Media that drove the story. Democrats were livid when Bush’s political advisor, Karl Rove was not indicted. They had hoped to topple the “evil genius” that handed them three straight electoral defeats.
Woodward’s bombshell has them all reeling. During Wednesday night’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball”, host Chris Matthews’ disappointment was evident. In the weeks leading up to Libby’s indictment, he was giddy about the prospect of key members of the White House facing charges. Now he has been forced to deal with the prospect that not only might there be no convictions in the case, but the truth about the Wilson-Plame affair will probably be discovered.
The question on the minds of nearly everyone paying attention to this was the reason Woodward decided to come forward only now. It wasn’t a sense of conscience that motivated the reporter; it was fear of being forced to admit that he withheld important information that would exonerate Libby. When Libby’s defense team announced that it would vigorously defend their client, instead of negotiating the usual Washington “slap on the wrist” Sandy Berger-style plea deal, Beltway reporters realized that many of them might have been called as witnesses. The defense would have every right to do so since the Special Prosecutor, who required reporters to reveal sources of confidential information, has already established the precedent in this case.
Libby’s lawyers indicated this week that they would seek to have a large number of journalists testify, especially those who were not called before the Grand Jury. The question to be asked of reporters will be: “What did you know, and when did you know it?”
The answer to this question will further destroy Fitzgerald’s case, if it ever makes it to trial. The Special Prosecutor already knows that Valerie Plame was not “covert” at the time Robert Novak published her name in his 2003 column. What he will learn from journalists is that Joe Wilson’s wife and her association with the CIA was well known among reporters. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell admitted as much even before a special prosecutor took over the case, but has recently claimed her remarks were taken out of context. Libby’s lawyers intend to determine what she and other reporters knew about Valerie Plame under oath.
What many of these reporters fear most of all is that they may be required to reveal their sources. Since there is no federal shield law that exempts a reporter from being forced by the court to name a confidential source, it is likely that the network of reporters and their sources in the government will be exposed. The results will be enlightening to say the least.
What may be laid bare is the virtually unlimited access that reporters have to government secrets. No small part of this is the political component behind many of the leaks. During 2004, classified information that was damaging to the Bush administration was provided to journalists who appeared to coordinate their reporting with the Kerry campaign. Those reporters may be exposed as having acted as political operatives.
One of the reporters who may receive the most scrutiny is the Washington Post’s Walter Pincus. His extraordinary sources have made him a top reporter on national security issues, but now that reputation will come into question as the Libby case moves closer to trial. Yesterday, a federal judge found Pincus to be in contempt of court for refusing to reveal his government sources for information about nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. Lee has filed a lawsuit against the government for improperly disclosing information about him in violation of the Privacy Act.
The Wilson-Plame affair is on the verge of becoming a media scandal, where journalists will be found to have willingly participated in political operation to destroy a sitting president. As I have said on many occasions, this is not 1972 and the Old Media’s credibility is virtually non-existent and its ability to control the news has been significantly diminished by the rise of the New Media.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2005
MoDo is a "NoGo"
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has been publicly rebuked in the free market of ideas. Her super-hyped book, "Are Men Necessary?" is being roundly "booed" by critics and passed over by the book-buying public.
Journalism can be tough when your crap doesn't have the built-in audience of the Old Grey Lady and has to stand on its own. I'm sure Judith Miller is enjoying her former colleague's pratfall.
From Drudge:
NYT DOWD BOOK: ONLY 10,140 SERVED IN FIRST WEEK AFTER MEGA-PRESS BLITZ FOR 'ARE MEN NECESSARY?'...
[DOWD'S NYT COUNTERPART THOMAS FRIEDMAN 'WORLD' SELLS 21,566 FOR WEEK; 785,752 SINCE RELEASE]
JIMMY CARTER HOLDS FIRST PLACE WITH 34,427 SOLD [65,757 SINCE RELEASE]... DORIS GOODWIN IN PLACE WITH 27,883 [79,188]... AL FRANKEN 19,837 FOR WEEK [81,837 TOTAL] BILLY CRYSTAL 17,831 SOLD... JOHN MCCAIN 'CHARACTER' 8,318 IN WEAK DEBUT... MORE...
Posted by jeffgannon at 01:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2005
Hear Bush's lies - from the mouths of the Clintons
So much hypocrisy - so little time. See for yourself:
And there's more from other Democrats.
Posted by jeffgannon at 07:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2005
Planet of the Mapes
Now that Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer who was fired for her role in the Rathergate scandal has begun making public appearances to promote her book, it is clear that she is "Divorced from Reality™."
Mapes mentions me in her book in two places, once for "outing" her as the person responsible for acquiring the phony TANG documents and again for the interview I conducted with her father.
For the record, I'll put these things into context, since they are likely distorted in Mapes' work of fiction.
Mapes identified to radio talk show host Sean Hannity.
Interview with Mapes' father who he describes her daughter as a "radical feminist" among other things. Read more of my reporting on Rathergate.
No wonder Mapes feels like she has to take a shot at me in her book. But it's only fair, I take more than a few shots at her in mine.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2005
Honor America's veterans
America's fighting men and women make our freedom possible. Remember those who sacrificed for YOU. Thank a veteran today.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Zarqawi's PR debacle
Abu Musab al Zarqawi's attack on three hotels in Amman, Jordan has backfired on the al Qaeda terror leader. Jordanians marched in the streets to protest the violence, while King Abdullah reiterated his country's commitment to fighting terrorism. (Spain, take note.)
The attack is the latest in a series of public relations gaffes committed by the Islamic extremists. In a recent letter, an advisor complained that gruesome beheadings and indiscriminate violence were creating a negative image for the movement. Time to call in Fenton Communications. Look what it's done for Cindy Sheehan!
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rove's got his groove back
The Karl Rove we all know and love and who Democrats fear and loathe isn't acting like a man in "serious legal jeopardy." The New York Times sorrowfully reports on Rove's speech to the Federalist Society.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 10, 2005
Thank you Hollywood!
Barbra Streisand reminds America why she and the Democrats who share her views can't be trusted with national security let alone the truth. This rant from her website is typical of the incoherent rage that liberals offer in lieu of rational, fact-based debate.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2005
Democrats nuke Senate
In what can only be described as a cunning stunt – no Captain Dyslexia, this isn’t about Maureen Dowd – Harry Reid and his angry band of impotents shut down the Senate for a few hours on Tuesday. They tossed aside the precious comity the Democratic minority has used to intimidate the country club Republican leadership from advancing President Bush’s agenda in order to score a few cheap political points.
Stung by the failure of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to indict White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for wrongdoing in the Valerie Plame affair and Bush’s nomination of solidly conservative Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, Democrats staged a legislative sit-in. While it stirred up the party’s hard core base, that is the MoveOn.org crowd and the Old Media, it emphasized what it is that Democrats do best: get in the way. In recent years Democrats have moved away from the toxic “liberal” label and repackaged themselves as “progressive.” But Tuesday’s sideshow underscored that their agenda is to try to stop any progress at all.
Reid’s ambush drove Sen. Bill Frist, the polite country doctor who has been sleepwalking through his tenure as Majority Leader, to the microphones to angrily denounce his minority counterpart. I can only hope that this confrontation has convinced the Republicans that they are actually in control of the Senate and can govern without deference to the Democrats.
Democrats claim to want a debate about pre-war intelligence and an investigation into the alleged leaking of the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife. Any such discussion must include a no-holes-barred examination of the Central Intelligence Agency. This will reveal that not only was the agency dysfunctional as the result of eight years of politicization under the Clinton administration, a rogue element within the organization of which Valerie Plame was a part, ran an operation to undermine the Bush administration’s policy toward Iraq.
The political component of this investigation cannot be ignored. A memo written by a staffer for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee described the Democrats’ strategy to use the process against the President in 2004.
What follows is the text of the memo and with some analysis, courtesy of www.IntelMemo.com:
Pulling the Trigger
We have carefully reviewed our options under the rules and believe we have identified the best approach. Our plan is as follows:
Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. We are having some success in that regard. For example, in addition to the president's State of the Union speech, the chairman has agreed to look at the activities of the Office of the Secretary of Defense as well as Secretary Bolton's office at the State department. The fact that the chairman supports our investigations into these offices and co-signs our requests for information is helpful and potentially crucial. We don't know what we will find but our prospects for getting the access we seek is far greater when we have the backing of the majority. (Note: we can verbally mention some of the intriguing leads we are pursuing.)
ANALYSIS: The substance of the Committee's work is classified until released, so any such "verbal mention" is strictly forbidden. Here the Democrats are conspiring to drop hints about the classified information they hope to obtain during their investigation. In addition to violating the rules, this would put members of the Republican majority at an unfair disadvantage, since they cannot refute characterizations of the "intriguing leads" without revealing classified information themselves.
Much more at www.IntelMemo.com
Democrats have never disavowed this memo.
Posted by jeffgannon at 06:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 01, 2005
Farewell to a fine friend
Winston 1990-2005
Yesterday I said goodbye to my longtime friend, Winston. He and his brother Churchill came into my life as nine-week old puppies more than 15 years ago. Throughout his life, he was loyal and faithful, always a comfort.
After coming to Washington, he quickly established himself as a popular figure in our Capitol Hill neighborhood. When he became one of the most famous dogs in America early in 2005, he took his celebrity in stride.
At the height of Gannongate, I spoke of my best friend in an interview with Deborah Solomon in The New York Times Magazine:
“I have a dog named Winston. I am still the same to Winston, no matter what, and there is comfort in that. Winston doesn't watch the news.”
Winston was also mentioned in David Margolick’s article in Vanity Fair. He wrote:
“If you want a friend in Washington, Harry Truman famously said, get a dog. Gannon did one better, bringing Winston with him, and it turned out to be a wise move.”
Life with Winston had its share of misadventures. He and his brother sometimes fought, like brothers do. Winston usually came out on the short end of their battles and more than once a trip to the vet was needed to patch him up. Churchill went to live with my mom when I moved to Washington.
Winston's most memorable miscues came as a result of his own frenetic behavior. One Christmas Eve he locked himself in a car that was running by stepping on the door button and had to be rescued by a mechanic. Once when I still drove a jeep, he leaped from my lap and jumped into a fast food drive-through window. The pandemonium that ensued inside the restaurant as people standing in line at the counter scattered while frantic teenagers in paper hats tried to catch him looked like a scene from a Disney film. The eatery had to be shut down for a brief period to clean up after the melee.
All of these things I will remember fondly along with the quiet times when he would sleep on his pillow as I tapped away at a news story or a column.
He was always there, through the ups and downs. No matter how bad my day was, I always knew there would be joyful licks when I came home.
That's what I'll miss most of all.
Posted by jeffgannon at 06:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack