Gatecrash Update

My Li’l Bro Thom sends along this piece in the WaPo with the note: Your musings about the real GateCrash story are not far off the mark at all.

I had written:

What if what happened is this: this couple talked to someone in the WH, someone on Obama’s staff, like (but not necessarily) Rahm Emmanuel, (or Kalpen Modi, or Robert Gibbs) and said, “hey, remember us? Obama loves us! We’d really like to come to that party” and this White House Accessible Person (WHAP) said, “sure no problem, I’ll get you in…” and then got busy with something else and forgot to clear the additional guests. So they show up, all decked out, and when they are turned away, they call their WHAP, who then gives a wink-and-nod to a member of the security detail about it.

And what if the Pissed Off Secret Service Ensemble, (POSSE) furious that the WHAP did not follow the protocols, decided to play along and let these people in, as a means of waking up the WH staff to just how important it is to follow the rules?

Logic says, “the POSSE is being made to look foolish by this breach, why would they allow themselves to be perceived as falling down on the job?”

But memory says, “it is the job of the Secret Service to protect the president, even from his own follies, or the foolishness of his staff,” even to take a bullet for him, if necessary.

What if the POSSE is taking the blame -taking the bullet, as it were- for this breech, because someone in the WH did not follow procedure? And what if the revelation of past meetings between Obama and these pathetic, attention-hungry “gate crashers” is meant to keep the story just confusing enough to -if not completely absolve the POSSE- make people wonder just who failed, where and when?

What if all of this is the POSSE firing a warning shot across the bow of the White House, saying, “for crying out loud, grow up, stop being sloppy and follow the rules; they are there for your own protection.”

I mean, it’s not like this White House does not have its share-unto-overabundance of arrogant princes who think they’re incapable of making mistakes.

OR, perhaps the WHAP is firing his own warning shot at the POSSE, and it means: “don’t give me such a hard time about trifling stuff that I -of all people- can be trusted to handle, and should not have to answer for, or I’ll make you look inept, careless and incompetent…”

Now we read

A top Defense Department official corresponded with Tareq and Michaele Salahi in an effort to get them into last week’s White House state dinner, according to sources familiar with an investigation into the security breach. On Friday the couple turned over copies of the email exchange to the Secret Service investigators.

Sources said the e-mails were sent from Michele S. Jones, the special assistant to the Secretary of Defense and the Pentagon-based liaison to the White House, who lists the Salahis’ lawyer, Paul W. Gardner, as one of her 50 friends on the Facebook social networking site.

Several people familiar with the Jones-Salahi correspondence argued the e-mails support the Salahis’ case that they were cleared to attend Tuesday night’s gala.

“There was e-mail correspondence confirming they were legitimately supposed to be there,” said Casey Margenau, a close friend of the couple. “They understood they were invited.”

“I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening’s events,” Jones said in a statement released by the White House late Monday. “I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.”

Will we be allowed to see the content of the emails? Probably not, if they are at all embarrassing to the White House. But the story is as interesting as I thought it would be. And I expect it will grow more interesting, still.

UPDATE I: “We were invited.”

Michelle Malkin: wonders where Desiree Rogers fits into this whole thing. Good quesiton.

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