Photo by frank.thorp.

Examiner columnist Harry Jaffe penned a column late last week in which he wrote of the pressures presumptive Mayor-elect Vince Gray will face from the many coalitions, groups and unions that endorsed him.

A few paragraphs in, Jaffe writes:

Call me naive, but my guess is that most of these unions and various interest groups will be taking the new mayor behind closed doors and asking for a return on their electoral investment. Ditto the business groups, the tenants — and, of course, the Muslim Democratic Caucus.

Huh? The Muslim Democratic Caucus? Yes, it is true that the small group endorsed Gray, but so did the Caribbean-American Political Action Committee. And the Sierra Club. And the Gertrude Stein Club. And lots of other groups.

So why the singling out? Maybe it’s because the group’s president is Talib Karim, brother of Omar Karim, one of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s friends embroiled in the parks and rec contracting scandal. (Omar is set to be deposed tomorrow as part of an investigation commissioned by the D.C. Council.)

But even that wouldn’t make the group worthy of this type of attention, seeing that Talib Karim went against his own brother. Unless — and this is a stretch — the Karim brothers were playing both campaigns in hope of keeping their access to government contracts. Could that be it? We’re not really sure. We reached out to Jaffe and Karim last week for any insights they may have on the issue, unfortunately, we’ve received no response from either.