Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Posted on 11/28/2009 6:15:30 PM PST by kristinn
While much attention is being focused on the Secret Service for allowing uninvited socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi to crash the state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House last week, the person responsible for all facets of the dinner has so far been given a pass by her friends in the media.
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, a Chicago pal of the Obamas, failed to follow the previous administration's practice of staffing the Secret Service-guarded entrances for dinner guests with someone from her office that could handle any problem with invitees.
The AP quoted Rogers directly acknowledging her failure:
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, asked by the AP on Thursday whether personnel from her office were at the checkpoint said, "We were not."
The media will be loathe to criticize Rogers, given their love affair with her. Fawning profiles by the media are filled with language that wll come back to haunt Rogers as attention turns to her failure to flag the interlopers from the moment they tried to crash the dinner at the gate, through their introduction in the East Wing, their shaking hands with the president and Indian prime minister in the receiving line and their presence in the dinner tent on the South Lawn where they met Vice President Biden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago Tribune slobbered its praise of Rogers back in March, highlighting her experience in helping the little people get lucky:
Desiree Rogers once made millionaires of a lucky few everyday people. Now she plans to give Americans dinner invitations to the White House.
Rogers, a svelte, stylish Chicago business executive and socialite—and a former Illinois lottery director—is turning again to Lady Luck in her new role as social secretary for a White House that hopes to balance glamor, history and an urban sensibility with plenty of populism.
...Whatever epithet ultimately sticks to the Obama White House, Rogers will be its impresario. And she, for one, rejects comparisons with Camelot: "This is not necessarily a presidency that duplicates, or copies. The Obamas have their own style," she said in an interview.
That style is livelier than the Bushes, more hip than the Reagans, more multicultural than the Clintons and more accessible than the Kennedys.
Well, Rogers certainly made Obama more accessible.
In February, Vanity Fair asked, Can Desiree Rogers Make Washington Fun Again?:
No previous White House Social Secretary has had a Harvard M.B.A. Nor have any talked openly about “branding” the Presidency. But Desirée Rogers, the glamorous Chicago businesswoman, social figure, and friend of the Obamas’, is a change agent. As she told me two days after the inauguration, she wants to be the producer of an inclusive show-and-tell from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Wall Street Journal did its share of slobbering over Rogers in April:
Desirée Glapion Rogers is the descendant of a Creole voodoo priestess named Marie Laveau Glapion. The first time I meet her, she welcomes me into her East Wing lair—a rhythm and blues tune plays on a white iPod, a potted white orchid perches between two windows, fresh flowers sit on a heavy wooden desk. This is a woman who never sees a wilted bloom. The 49-year-old turns on just enough Southern charm to camouflage an aura of self-assuredness typically reserved for runway models or first ladies. Wearing a crisp white shirt, black patent flats and high-waisted navy slacks that would look terrible on almost anyone else, Rogers talks about her job as White House social secretary.
...Rogers, who calls herself the “eyes and ears” of Mrs. Obama, has known the first lady for nearly two decades. They met through Rogers’ ex-husband, John Rogers Jr., who played basketball at Princeton with Mrs. Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson. They have an easy way together, elbowing and joking, chatting about their daughters and smiling widely at each other, the way only old girlfriends do. Mrs. Obama pops her head in Rogers’ office to chat like someone who is still surprised that she works down the hall from her friend. Friendships with all the right people may be one of the reasons that Obama chose Rogers for the job of planning every social event that takes place at the White House—from black-tie dinners to pickup basketball games, press conferences, movie nights and birthday parties.
Summing up what she does for a living, Rogers says she plans events that “promote the Obama presidency” and make sure “the White House asset is reflective of who they [the Obamas] are.” In keeping with her corporate background and her Harvard M.B.A., Rogers uses words like “strategic plan” and “brand” when she describes how a constant string of lunches, parties and concerts can help her mission. “You have to think about it [the social secretary job], in my mind, almost like a business. Otherwise, you never get there. You get caught in linen hell and flower hell, list hell,” Rogers says as she reflects on the first series of high-profile events.
It looks like Rogers is going to end up in (lack of) security hell.
But at least she impressed the press that night:
"Desiree Rogers arrived at about 6:53 pm and stopped briefly to chat. Rogers said "We are very excited...everything looks great."
Robin "show off" Givhan, who is standing next to your pooler asked what everyone wanted to ask: "Are you wearing Comme Des Garcons?"
"Of course," Rogers replied."
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd L) greets Michaele Salahi (C) and her husband Tareq (R) during a state dinner for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) at the White House in this official White House photo taken November 24, 2009 and released November 27, 2009. REUTERS/Samantha Appleton-The White House/Handout
Desiree Rogers failed to work effectively with the Secret Service to keep uninvited people out of the White House and then she and her staff failed to spot the intruders at various high profile spots during the course of the evening.
It's difficult to fire friends, but the security and reputation of the presidency takes precedence over friendships, at least in a normal presidency.
Obama should throw Rogers under the bus for this, but will he?
Tareq and Michaele Salahi were engaged in a long court battle with his parents over the winery. Tareq Salahi sued his mother, Corinne, court records show, and the suit was dismissed.
The mother sued Tareq Salahi and the case went to trial. The outcome is not clear from a Virginia courts Web site. Tareq and Michaele Salahi won control of the winery in 2007, but it has run into debt since then.
Oasis Winery filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February of this year, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records in the Eastern District of Virginia. Tareq Salahi is listed as company president in the filing. Listed creditors include the IRS, Fauquier County, the state of Virginia, several banks and American Express Corp., among others. The company claims about $335,000 in assets and $965,000 in liabilities."
But it's the Salahis polo and charities connection that appear to have raised the most questions. Tareq Salahi was involved in running a popular D.C. charitable polo event called the Courage Cup, an event that also widened the couple’s social influence, giving them access to many of society's elite, including President Bill Clinton, Arizona Sen. John McCain, Britain's Prince Charles, Oprah Winfrey and actor Matt Damon.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees charitable operations in the commonwealth, issued a consumer warning earlier this year against the "Journey for a Cure Foundation," of which the Salahis are listed as co-founders, the Fauquier-Times Democrat reported. The state regulatory and watchdog agency reportedly claimed that the foundation was soliciting money from Virginians for "allegedly charitable purposes," but had failed to follow laws requiring groups soliciting money for charity to register and file necessary paperwork with the department.
From : Fox and CC reports, they over lap!!
Good Lord she’s wearing that hideous belt on top of an overcoat??? Why doesn’t somebody, anybody, stop her from doing stuff like that??? I’m sure even her children don’t think that’s OK.
#61
Comme Des Garcons is French for fugly. Back in the 80’s, the line looked even worse (believe it or not).
He was a finance reporter, and he was cønstantly exposed to all the major wealth and spectacular surroundings of the Filthy Nouveau Riche, and I think that's why he decided to get an MBA - but he isn't using it to speak of, as far as I know, he's back to being a reporter. He must have a website, but I'm not familiar with it.
What in blazes is she wearing, a bunch of dirty dish rags???????
BTW, there's nothing unusual about a winery going bankrupt (in some form) in 2009 ~ the Obama Depression accounts for that.
Check in the wine shop in Springfield VA ~ any price ending in a 7 means the bottle is being sold at cost plus 1 cent.
Almost all the French wines are sold at such prices. Virginia's wines do a little better than that but not much.
Wine growers and vinters are having a really tough time this year. Why these people should be exempt from that is a good question (although the Pelosis appear to be ~ could be they no longer pay their help).
Ping - to another bizarre outfit...what is WITH the belts???
CNBC had a program about Harvard Business School, I couldn’t say I was impressed with the teaching methods but what really got me was that the famous alumni they listed was for the most part major disasters. The current head of General Electric for example.
Romney fans beware, he has an Harvard MBA.
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, a Chicago pal of the Obamas, failed to follow the previous administration's practice of staffing the Secret Service-guarded entrances for dinner guests with someone from her office that could handle any problem with invitees... No previous White House Social Secretary has had a Harvard M.B.A.That figures, a Harvard M.B.A. is the incompetent social secretary, while incompetents from other fields are mismatched in other jobs, like, for example, anything to do with Obama's mismanagement of gov't intervention in the economy and markets. Thanks hennie pennie. G'night all!
This article suggests that they had Obama's permission to be there ~ just like I said the morning after the event.
These people are no sleazier than Obama and the others.
I assure you that you cannot gate crash and get a picture with the President and the Vice President at the same event UNLESS you are invited to do exactly that.
Middle of the post,
Just like your statement it is nothing more than what it is your statement. It does not make it a fact!!
I remember...and it’s still hideous.
It certainly is in your basic, virulently anti-Christian media, Democrat party and academia. It is an A-List credential.
Romney fans beware, he has an Harvard MBA.
So does GWB.
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