February 19, 2005 - It’s a riches to rags story. Jimmy/Jeff Guckert/Gannon started life as a $1,200 a weekend - $200 an hour entrepreneur. In 1999 he took his business to the internet merchandising his services as a travel companion, workout partner, event companion, tour guide, and bodyguard using the sobriquet “Bulldog”. Reaching his special target audience he wrote, “GET WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT IT. Does your job keep you busy? No time to find the right guy? Need to be discrete? Don’t want to take too many chances to find someone who can keep your secret? Looking for masculine, mature, energetic and intelligent companionship? Can’t find all that in one person?” There was a link to 43 explicit photographs of Jimmy Jeff displaying his wares. His website, USMCPT.com came down in May 2003 a little after Jimmy Jeff started his new career in journalism breaking in as a White House Correspondent. Though it was taken down it was preserved in a web.archive.org cache. Jimmy Jeff also advertised his business elsewhere. Web.archive.com caught those too. Here is an example:

http://web.archive.org/web/20011103134331/http://www.malecorps.com/x/usmcpt

But Jimmy Jeff was not satisfied with just discrete fame and fortune. He longed to be one of Washington’s real movers and shakers. Using his painstakingly built up high level connections he got himself a White House Press Pass and started attending press briefings in February 2003. He apparently had some private briefs as well because he was leaking news of the March 19 decapitation air raid on Baghdad 4 hours before the President announced it. His talents gave him access to the deepest secrets of Washington with access to the secret CIA memo that named Victoria Plame as a deep cover operative. It is wonderful what discrete digging will do for a neophyte reporter. He was able to uncover Mary Mapes as the CBS producer responsible for the story that brought Dan Rather down long before any one else had that part of the story. You never know what contacts will bring you when you least expect it. If you keep plugging away with bulldog tenacity an entrepreneurial spirit will bring success – even in the rarified air of Washington journalism. It even brought Jimmy Jeff invites to the White House Christmas Parties where he met Karl Rove – or do I have that backwards?

But the DC Press corps is a rough racket. You go up one day and down the next. One day you are on the radio talk show circuit. The next day you are the story on CNN and then no one knows you. If you are going to play in that high stakes game then you have to have something to fall back on when you get dealt Aces and Eights.

That’s OK for the Bulldog. In Washington there is always a market for someone who can keep a secret. Some may be worried that there is also a market for someone who knows too many secrets and is willing not to keep them for the right price. We know how far “up” has been for the Bulldog. The real question now is how far is “down”?