Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON – With a magical snap of a finger, we need to make the Salahis, the dashing, photogenic White House  party crashers, vanish from our sight. Poof! Go they must into oblivion!

How do you say we accomplish that?

Don’t file criminal charges. It will only drag out their drama, give them more face time on TV and the Internet, give them more ammunition for a book. Right now, they only have enough for a good Vanity Fair piece.

And frankly, the government doesn’t have a slam dunk case, be it trespassing or lying to a federal officer. The Salahis have emails, lots of excuses and some slick charm, which may be enough to undercut a conviction in a federal court in Washington.

It’s simply not worth the trouble at this point. The American people get it. It’s not cool to crash a state dinner at the White House. Yes, the Secret Service takes it all very seriously. Yes, so does Congress. Yes, so does the White House. Yes, so does the media, which has had a field day with it all.

In the mean time, if the Salahis need to keep crashing parties, they should set their sights a little lower, perhaps with some weddings or bar mitzvahs in the Washington area. Just make sure the President isn’t in attendance.

Sen. Max Baucus/gov photo

WASHINGTON — They say “politics makes strange bedfellows” and Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat, can certainly attest to that.

The news website Main Justice reports that Justice Department official Melodee Hanes, a former Baucus staffer, who is in a relationship with Baucus, withdrew her name as a finalist for the U.S. Attorney job in  Big Sky Country  “in order to live with the senator in Washington.”

Baucus nominated Hanes while he was having a relationship with her and she served  as his  state director, according to Roll Call. She withdrew her nomination, and shortly after stepped down as a Baucus staffer.

Melodee Hanes/facebook photo

Main Justice’s Andrew Ramonas reports that Hanes’ ex-husband Thomas Bennett said: “She was recommended for the position because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus and she withdrew because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus.” Bennett and Hanes divorced in 2008.

To read more about this tangled web, go to Main Justice.

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