Kaine says he knows White House crashers

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Monday that he knows White House party-crashers Tareq and Michaela Salahi “pretty well.”

Kaine said he appointed Tareq Salahi to the board of Virginia Tourism Corp. because other travel industry members wanted the Fauquier County winery executive on the board.

“They are definitely promoters,” Kaine said.

Asked if he was surprised when he learned the Salahis were the couple who made their way past White House security without an invitation, Kaine smiled and said, “Absolutely not.”

“If you had said to me, ‘hey some Virginians crashed the White House party, and there are 7.5 million Virginians. Guess who it might be?’

“I would have guessed them,” Kaine said during an interview with The News & Advance’s editorial board.

“They hosted an event for me when I was running for governor,” at the Oasis Winery in Hume, Kaine said.

Governors Jim Gilmore and Mark Warner appointed the Salahis to Virginia’s wine advisory board, Kaine said, and “when they got off the wine board, the tourism board wanted them.

“So I appointed Tareq to the tourism board, because wine and tourism are actually becoming a much bigger deal,” Kaine said. The board has 15 members appointed by the governor.