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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.

" 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."

1)
Actually the point of Gaffney and others who have written on it and have knowledge of it, is that the WH outreach was set up at grover's initiative and staffed by his placee from his org. They then used him as the supplier and vetter, just as they do on taxes. If he brings a guy in for taxes no one would think to question him, espcially not if he got them the job, are fiercely loyal to him, and he is making their job easier by doing the heavy lifting both above them (Rove) and under them (getting the bodies list).

Now, if someone who has spent their career watching taxes in some state comes along and says, "Hey. wait a minute, I know that Joe guy, he scuttled every tax cut we tried." -- the staffer will say, Hey. Grover knows more than you do so whatever you say, even if you have pictures, it doesn't matter and it can' tbe true. And if it was it must not be now b/c Grover wouldn't even think about hanging with such people. And anyway, what's your personal beef with the Joe guy anyway, you obviously had policy differences with him, so you should just shut up and go away."

2) People have, in public, by not just Rove, but the PRESIDENT, been handed their head for calling attention to the problem, notably, afor the 4th time in 2 days, I suggest the Al Arian junior and senior case.

As if that weren't enough, Yes, people on the NSC staff, at the level of Special Assistant to the President, have been told, have agreed fully, and have said: 'But, No one will want to go to Rove with this.' Some have gone to Rove and he has sent them off saying he is aware of the complaints or words to that effect. It has also been mentioned that the lawyer for the Holy Land Foundation (listed for terror and closed by the President in a Rose Garden address held for that very topic), George Salem, was also the head of Ara Americans for Bush and qurtermilllion dollar fundraiser, and the Solicitor of Labor under Bush one -- and that Karl rejects any dicussion of that topic and so "we don't want to go to him on this one." And neither will Condi.

Last,in this same vein: the same is true of Grover's donor and his successor as Islamic Insitute chairman, Talaat Othman. Othman is an old Bush family friend, so much so that he is invested for 17 % of W's oil company, Harken Energy, on behalf of his Saudi boss gigilionaire Sheikh Baksh. Othman was appointed to the Texas State Utilities commission, even though he lives in Illinois. Othman also gave the invocation at the GOP 2000 convention (the first Muslim at either Party's convention, and possibly at Grover's suggestion)

And, in another one of those darned coincidences, Othman just happens to be on the Board on at least one of Yaqub Mirza's investment funds (other Mirza funds you might have heard of include MENA Invesments, MarJac--both raided -- and a little thing called the Ptech Investment Fund, which funded, along with designated global terrorist Yasin Qadi, the software company Ptech raided and closed last year in Boston for a variety of terrorism charges. see endnote.) Now might it bother someone that this Othman guy joins the Board of a fund run by a terrorist finance wiz, who also funded Norquist buddy Al Arian and Grover's Institute (Institute took at least $46,000 before 9/11 from this source).

WH staff and others have expressly stated these relationships to be off bounds as issues to take to Rove, based on previous experience. Obviously, then, if one sits down with Rove and gets beyond the first couple of bullet points one then has, to sooner or later, raise these kinds of names connected to Grover (e.g. his Insitute's then-Chairman and donor). Some pretty serious people have had this experience to no good effect. Now if one of you just thinks this stinks and wants to walk into Rove's office and try, where veterans of many White Houses and DC battles have failed, be our guest.

endnote: For those who need a refresher, Mirza (one of the names on Grover's WH Muslim Outreach waiver list), is the chief financial officer of the SAAR Trust/SAFA group of entities raided by Operation Greenquest in the aforementioned largest terror-finance investigation by the US government anywhere in the world. (see Farah, et al, Washington Post) He funded Sami AlArian and the Islamic Institute and was an attendee of the Islamic Institute's "Islamic Banking" conference with Grover last Fall -- well after the raid and the April, 2002 Wall Street Journal article by Glenn Simpson which outlined some of the groups in question and linked Saffuri, Othman, Mirza and Barzingi (the strategist and effectively COO of the alleged terror financing network of entities raided) in an illustrative chart.

By the way, to Be very clear: I view the SAUDI problem, in all its scope, to be the ultimate problem, source of funds and the thing that garbles every line of communication involved -from the very top, through to Grover and across the panoply of individuals and groups mentioned in connection to the Islamist problem. A good example is the fact that SECSTATE, and Bush campaign guru, James Baker 111, represents the Saudi government and royal family defendants in the 911 victims' families lawsuit. For a primer, again, I suggest Dave Kaplan's USNEWS cover story. But none of that means what Grover has chosen to do is excusable, and is not his own responsibility and choice.