Cirque Du Salahi: Be Careful Who You Trust (12 page)

“Sure, I would like to have stayed,” Tareq said later. “But when the attacks come on, it’s time for us to go. It happens on a regular basis.” He waited in the hotel bar while Michaele spent nearly half an hour in the ladies’ lounge trying the cold water trick and resting. Asked if she finally ate something at the hotel, as she had apparently gone all day without eating, Tareq said no. He immediately explained that Michaele has a compromised immune system. “You and I have strong immunes,” he says, “She has nearly none. She doesn’t like eating at these big functions because the food can be contaminated. People sneezing and coughing on it, maybe touching it and passing viruses. She is careful to eat what she trusts.”

It is a fact that multiple sclerosis patients often suffer from compromised immune systems, viruses and infections can wreak havoc on their bodies. But it’s also very important for MS sufferers to engage in healthy eating. Good nutrition, especially eating adequate protein and limiting the intake of sugar, helps an MS patient’s energy, their ability to heal wounds and to fight off infection.

[Authors Note: While researching this book, I spent considerable blocks of time with the Salahis both in their home and out in public. I personally observed Michaele eating food throughout the day and night, every time I was with them. Michaele Salahi’s poor eating habits certainly don’t help her as she continues to struggle to stay free of symptoms. She has an astounding sweet tooth, which calls for a grande Starbuck’s hot chocolate in the morning accompanied by one or more of their chocolate chip cookies. This breakfast may, on occasion, be replaced by a bowl of cereal. Bags of chocolate kisses and various kinds of chips and crackers are part of her diet nearly every day. In the evening, however, Michaele eats more sensibly. She was raised in a household with an ulcer sufferer and bland food was the standard fare. Michaele still prefers it to this day. Every night when I had dinner with them she ate beef (filet mignon is her favorite), one or more vegetables, and a salad—no seasoning, butter or salad dressing. There were no suspicious trips to the ladies’ room after the meal.]

When they arrived home to Virginia from the White House, at about 1 a.m., Tareq plugged in his dead cell phone to charge and discovered there was a message waiting. It was from Michele Jones, left late that afternoon, probably about the time they were leaving the salon to go to the White House. Jones was once again assuring the Salahis that she continued to work on getting them seating for the state dinner. Tareq chuckled at his poor timing in retrieving the message—
they’d already gone
to the White House and come home!
He assumed she had been successful in working her contacts to get them in. He turned to his laptop and at 1:03 a.m. he wrote to Jones to thank her for their glorious evening.

Hi Michele,

You are an Angel!

My cell phone battery died early this evening while we were in DC from our country home, so I just got you (sic) message now after driving back out. But obviously it worked out at the end. We ended up going to the gate to check in at 6:30 pm to just check, in case it got approved since we didn’t know, and our name was indeed on the list! :-) We are very grateful, and God Bless you.

We just got home, and we had a wonderful evening as you can imagine! Look forward to seeing you very soon. Say when for dinner—we can’t wait to see you and catch up and share memories of a true lifetime.

With Love,

Tareq & Michaele Salahi

He then took a few minutes to sign on to their joint Facebook page and post pictures of their spectacular evening. Under a general greeting Tareq proudly placed the photos with Vice President Joe Biden, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts, Rahm Emanuel (misspelling his first name as Ron), DC’s Mayor Adrian Fenty and his wife Michelle, Congressman Ed Royce of California, and others.

Waiting for the Salahis in the message area of Facebook was an e-mail from Amy Argetsinger from the “The Reliable Source” column at
WashingtonPost.com
which she had sent at 10:48 pm.

“You weren’t on the list! How did you manage to get into the state dinner. Call me asap… 202-744-xxxx.”

He ignored the gossip columnist’s message and went to bed with his ailing but happy wife.

The next day Michele Jones, seemingly beaming with pride at her accomplishment of getting the Salahis into one of the most desirable social events of the season, wrote back:

Tareq,

 

You are most welcome! I here (sic) the smile in your email and am delighted that you and Michael had
a wonderful time. :-)

Have an extraordinary Thanksgiving and many blessings to you both!

Much love,
Michele

It certainly didn’t read like a message an influential member of the White House team would send to a couple who had knowingly and recklessly, maybe even criminally, entered the secure environs of the President of the United States. To wish such supposed miscreants an “extraordinary” holiday and sign the message with “much love” seemed, instead, to be a clue that everyone involved had been happily working together to get the Salahis inside the White House.

Despite media reports to the contrary, the Salahis did not leave the White House early that night because they feared they would be discovered or because Michele battles anorexia and refused to eat, nor did they leave early because they wanted to rush home to post Facebook pictures. They left early, as they often do, because Michaele suffers from a medical condition for which there is no cure. They left because, as nobody else could know, the only “Real Secret” this “Real Housewife of D.C.” was harboring was that she suffers from multiple sclerosis and had been battling the symptoms for over sixteen years.

Politics 101

Politics is all about how many people you have on your side in any given situation, event, or, of course, election. In the game of politics, it’s never politic to diss someone who’s been helpful to your party, no matter how small their contribution might have been. As President Lyndon Johnson once said about his thorn-in-the-side FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, “It’s better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in….”

While the Salahis had given time, money and donations of wine to politicians from both sides of the aisle over the years, it was far and away the Democratic Party that had benefited the most. Virginia Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine knew that. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe and his top aide Justin Paschal knew it too. Freshman Senator Barack Obama had benefited from the Salahis’ largess in 2005 at the Rock the Vote affair. As President, Mr. Obama had been reminded of the Salahis’ benefactor status on the night of the state dinner by Michaele Salahi herself in the receiving line.

The official White House photo of that moment shows President Obama’s broad grin as he takes the hand of arguably the most noticed woman in the room, the platinum blonde in the stylish sheer-at-the-midriff red sari.

To be fair, there had been more than three hundred guests at the White House that November night. But one would think any red-blooded American man would be hard pressed to completely forget that dazzling blonde when he heard the news about her—
and saw her picture splashed everywhere the next day
—or her husband talked about playing polo with India—the country the honored guest hailed from.

But after the news broke, the White House let the Salahis twist in the wind with no mention made of their past assistance to their political party. There were no words of caution from the Obama Administration to reporters to downplay the story while the staff figured out exactly what had happened. There was only silence from the Administration. It apparently didn’t dawn on President Obama or any of his political operatives to try to step in and control what was fast becoming a runaway media cause célèbre. The story was not going away and anyone with solid media expertise could have predicted it.

The Democratic National Committee was also quiet in the days directly after the state dinner. Chairman Tim Kaine made no move to step forward to defend his friends and long time benefactors. Former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe (who still harbors dreams of running for political office again someday) said nothing about the couple who had repeatedly supported his party’s causes. It was an interesting reaction from a man whose autographed photo with the Salahis hangs in their home, “Tareq and Michaele,” it reads in bold black handwriting, “Thank you for all your efforts for the Democratic Party and for the great wine! Best Wishes.” McAuliffe, standing near his trusted aide Justin Paschal, is seen clasping Michaele around the waist and grinning broadly like he’s with best friends.

The reaction—or lack of reaction—from top representatives of the Democratic Party in response to this story should act as a clarion bell of caution to any and all future political contributors. Whether dealing with Democrats, Republicans, or any other politically motivated institution, one must realize the stark reality. Contributors may think their gift of cash or volunteer time or liquor for a party is going to bring them some special standing or consideration in the future. Don’t believe it for a second. If the media zeroes in on that contributor as the target in one of their relentless lock-and-load news stories, all bets are off. Politicians will drop a controversial benefactor like the proverbial hot potato and leave him/her on the floor.

The way the “Crasher” scandal erupted on to the American landscape and then was allowed to simmer and distract from the real business of running the country is puzzling. Within days President Obama was set to make a major troop announcement at West Point, dramatically increasing the number of U.S. soldiers being sent to fight in Afghanistan. The country’s economy was faltering, the health care debate was raging, and all the while the Salahi scandal was on the front burner and the front pages. It grew and grew. While pundit questions about the Salahi visit persisted, it was as if the President had made the decision to ignore it all in hopes that it would go away.

During the regular White House media briefings, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seemed to shrug off most questions about that night. On the afternoon of December 4
^th
there was a contentious exchange between Gibbs and reporter April Ryan of American Urban Radio. She wanted clarification of Social Secretary Desiree Rogers’ role at the dinner that night. It seemed like a logical topic for questions. Where
were
Rogers and her staff that night? Did she put herself on the guest list? What was the White House response to whispers around Washington that Rogers had been too busy acting “the belle of the ball” and posing for photographers in her couture gown, overshadowing the First Lady? Gibbs looked bemused and didn’t really answer instead suggesting Ryan, “Calm down and take a deep breath.” When the veteran reporter looked exasperated and sat down, Gibbs condescendingly added to the rest of the room, “I do this with my son and that’s what happens too …”