[Sabertooth]

Where was the FBI? Where was the CIA? Where were any of these folks? It doesn't have to be anything big and splashy - just a simple phone call. "Mr. President, there's something you should know before your meeting this afternoon." But I get the impression that there was no such thing done, and I want to know why.

The impression I get, and I've got hundreds of hours on this, is that calls were made (not likely to the President) in at least some cases, and that those calls were dismissed and the concerns were overruled.

I also want to know why.

[general_re]

It's the $64,000 dollar question, I guess. I'd like to know if such a call was made, first off. And who made such a call, what they said, and why it was rejected. Was the caller in a position to know who exactly these men were, or was it some file clerk somewhere with a bad feeling? Was the information given specific enough to be meaningful, or was it vague and nonspecific, and therefore, meaningless? Was the person called in a position to do something about it all? And finally, why was it ignored - assuming it was specific and credible and meaningful.

[Nick Danger]

those calls were dismissed and the concerns were overruled.
I also want to know why.

Me too. My whole problem with this "Get Grover" deal is that it is obvious that this was somebody's policy. Even Gaffney says that Grover's deal was a sideshow compared to the Muslim Outreach in the White House. And the White House does not appear to have been selecting a higher grade of Muslim than Norquist was.

Every time I tried to broach this with our Mystery Correspondent, I got a bottle of ridicule about not tipping off some new hire at the front gate about wiretapping... or some Major was gonna get his head handed to him by Rove. But I've fought a few battles in bureacracies myself; that isn't where it stops. The Major doesn't take on Rove, the Major tells the General, and the General tells Condoleezza, or Cheney, and they worry about Rove. It has to be capital-S Serious before that will happen, but I can't see Cheney or Rice wanting these kinds of characters around, and either of them is perfectly capable of 'splaining Rove in political terms why he doesn't want 'em around. I've had secretaries that could get rid of salesmen better than this. "He's in a meeting. He was called away. We have to reschedule, how does 2006 look for you?" There are ways to get rid of these guys IF you want to get rid of them.

I conclude that somebody in the White House didn't want to get rid of them, and still doesn't. Why does Gaffney have to run around on Hewett and in here to make this happen? It's because the people who share his views on this who are inside the White House are losing, and I can't believe it's to Rove. And it sure as hell isn't to Grover Norquist.

I can't imagine what's going on here. It is either super-smart or super-stupid, because nothing in the middle makes sense.