ABSURD TO SUBLIME

The story gets deeper and deeper.

from CNN

The White House says the Salahis were not invited, but their lawyer, Paul W. Garner, "states emphatically that the Salahi’s did not ‘crash’ this event," according to a statement from the couple’s publicist, .Mahogany Jones

Also Friday, an investigation has found that Secret Service agents did not follow protocol at a security checkpoint at the event, the agency said.

"The Secret Service is deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the State Dinner on Tuesday," the agency said in a statement Friday. "The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list."

"Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours," the statement said.

Two Secret Service agents visited a Virginia winery Friday to say they wanted to question the couple, according to the winery’s manager.

Diane Weiss, manager at the Oasis Winery in Hume, Virginia, said the agents wanted to speak with the Salahis. Weiss said she didn’t know their whereabouts.

The Warren County Report, a local newspaper, quoted Weiss as saying the agents said they wanted to speak with the couple and not arrest them. It also quoted her as saying that the Salahis live in Linden, Virginia, but receive mail at the winery.

And the agents said it was "imperative" that investigators speak with the couple and that they would "take whatever action" is necessary if they did not, the paper quoted Weiss as saying.

Michaele Salahi has not been back to Twitter or Facebook since Wednesday morning.

excerpt from the NY Daily News

The wanna-be reality TV couple at the center of asecurity scandal White House are known for dodging bill collectors and legal wranglings with relatives, neighbors and kin said Thursday.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi  – contenders for the upcoming Bravo show "The Real Housewives of Washington DC kept a low profile Thursday as a brouhaha over how they crashed President Obama’s first official state dinner grew.

No one was more stunned by the Virginia couple’s nervy navigation around Secret Service than Tareq Salahi’s own parents.

"My jaw dropped. I was in shock," Tareq Salahi’s mother, Corinne Salahi, 63, told the Daily News. "I had no idea – he has his own life. I didn’t tell my mother everything I ever did."

Tareq Salahi, 41, a polo-playing winemaker, and his blond bride, Michaele Salahi, 44, waltzed into Tuesday night’s White House fete dressed to the nines, but without invitations.

Married since 2002, the Salahis have made a hobby out of cozying up to celebrities and burning bridges, neighbors and relatives said.

"We don’t need this," Tareq Salahi’s mother said of the White House debacle.

Tareq Salahi,  co-founder of The Land Rover America’s Polo Cup, and his parents have been battling in court over control of the family’s Oasis Winery in Fauquier County, Va.

The parents claim they need to sell the 108-acre winery to pay off more than $1 million in debt their son has allegedly tallied. Tareq Salahi is fighting to hold on to the winery, betting he and his wife can turn the business around next year.

His father, however, has little faith.

"They lost the home," Dirgham Salahi, 82, told The News, explaining that his son’s 4,000-square-foot house in Front Royal, Va., is in foreclosure.

No one answered the door of the couple’s $660,000 home, which remains furnished, and a dog could be heard barking inside. A photo of Tareq Salahi posing with Prince Charles was prominently displayed on a wall. .

Neighbors said the couple are far from royalty.

"Nobody wants to deal with them," said a neighbor.

Another neighbor said the Salahis were living out of hotels around Washington in recent weeks. The neighbor said the couple’s cars, including a Maserati and an Aston Martin, have been repossessed.

"People come in our driveway looking for them," the neighbor said. "The sheriffs have come by twice lately."