I personally can take no credit for this catch (props go to ladydawg), but it got lost at the bottom of the "Gannon was in the WH before April 2003" diary, it doesn't look like it's been diaried, and it exposes McClellan and the White House in a rather inexplicable lie:
Photographic evidence that Guckert had a 'hard pass' before Talon News even existed.
Scotty and friends have thus far attempted to justify Guckert's presence at press briefings by noting that the latter "only" received so-called "day passes," which are allegedly issued to a variety of individuals without the more thorough clearing process (and assigned seat) that come with a "hard pass."
One might wonder, indeed, how someone who doesn't work for a news organization at all, but instead a (to put it charitably) right-wing think tank, whose journalistic qualifications consist of a $50, 2-day seminar with the right-wing leadership institute, and who hadn't even published any "news" article until about one month beforehand, can manage to get a hard pass to the WH Press Room, while NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd cannot.
In any case, C-SPAN's video from the March 3, 2003 press briefing (from which the above stills are taken) proves that Guckert was in the Press Room, with a hard pass, before Talon News was created as a "spinoff" to GOPUSA, Guckert's original employer. Watch the video from the 35:10 mark onward, as it zooms in on the French female reporter. Guckert is visible behind her left shoulder, and as the zoom to her continues, his hard pass is captured in the frame.
For those who would argue that we can't be sure it's Guckert, I commend C-SPAN's February 25, 2003 video of the briefing to you. Watch from the 30:11 point onward, as the video zooms in on the same French female reporter. You'll notice, not so coincidentally, that Guckert is visible in the same seat over her left shoulder.
UPDATE:
The direct links to the videos are apparently not working. They can be accessed from this page on C-SPAN's site (just scroll down till you find the right dates; March 3 and February 25, respectively).
UPDATE II: Both AMERICAblog and Raw Story are citing sources who doubt (with varying degrees of skepticism) that what is shown in the photo capture is a WH hard pass. Personally, I'll wait to hear what the analysis of C-SPAN's DVD comes up with. But, as several posters on this thread have suggested, Guckert's M.O. as a serial poseur certainly leaves room for him to have crafted a hard pass-esque pass for himself, or perhaps GOPUSA attempted to boster its "news" cred by creating a pass. Only time will tell...