Disclaimer: This is primarily amusing speculation with not a shred of evidence to support it, though absolutely possible, but I needed something amusing for a lazy New Years day at home.

I followed a tweet from Steve Benen this morning to an article of his at the Washington Monthly because the subject was pretty funny. The title is, “THEY NEVER LEARN” but that wasn’t nearly as humorous as the tweet, which said, “Dear conservative bloggers reviewing WH visitor logs: sometimes, different people have the same name.” You can click through and read it for yourself, but the nutshell version is that several names showed up in the recently released White House Visitor logs which included William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Bertha Lewis. (Of ACORN fame.) Predictably, this sent a few of my more conservative brethren into a tizzy until it was revealed (though I’m not sure how this was confirmed) that these were entirely different people than the famous names we now know and love from the news headlines and last year’s campaign.

The story could certainly end there, but this got me to thinking. Rahm Emanuel is well known for his rather acidic sense of humor and style. (Really, who still mails dead fish to people?) Is it that far fetched to think that good old Rahm might have gotten out his laptop, flipped through the online white pages and found some people with names that matched? (I just did a quick search on “William Ayers” and found more than 400 in the United States alone.) After some vetting to make sure they weren’t total nutjobs, what a nice gesture to send them an invitation for a complementary tour of the White House? Then you just wait until the visitor records are released, sit back and wait for the fun to begin. It might have even been something cooked up during the WHWOF. (White House War on Fox.) If this did turn out to be true, I’d have to give Rahm some well deserved props, because that would have been pretty darned hilarious.

The story also got me to wondering why it was, exactly, that some of my conservative brethren were spending their time going through the visitor logs anyway. I mean, what were they expecting to find? Osama bin Laden? Let’s say for a moment that the “real” Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Bertha Lewis all got invited over to the West Wing for lunch. Would this really be productive blog-fare? It’s not as if the nation isn’t already aware that Obama knows them, has had conversations and relationships with them and touched base in the past. And that knowledge obviously wasn’t enough to put them off from electing Obama last fall.

For two of them at least they would be seen from a law enforcement perspective as nothing more than two more citizens who got invited inside. And in the case of Ayers, I’m sure most former domestic terrorists would have a hard time getting through the gate, but the Secret Service has some discretion on these things and must consult with the White House on it. I’m sure he could get in. And then… what? Would it be headline news if they had visited? I admit that I’m enough of a political nerd that I download entire pieces of legislation and read them because, well… basically I have no life. But even I’m not far enough gone to go pouring through those visitor logs.

So what do you think of my conspiracy theory? Was Rahm looking for a way to toss some egg on the faces of Fox and the Right wing blogosphere? I’m sure we’ll never know, but it’s a fun idea.