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?
evidently so.,,,
Then if she is a friend of Michelle’s that explains that really ugly dress she wore.
Remember when President Bush was at a state dinner in Chile - and his secret service was detained? Bush went right into the fray and pulled his guy out.
When the middle eastern guy threw a shoe at then President Bush, he didn’t and the media didn’t put the Secret Service under the bus.
It’s this administration with his cohorts in the media, that is making the Secret Service take responsibility. Why?
Tes I do remember those incidences.
why are they making the Sscret Service the scapegoat for this latest blunder?
Because they don’t want to admit their own incompetence and that of their hired ‘experts’.
My initial analysis is the same as most people out there.
The blame (and therefore the ultimate responsibility for this) will come down to one of three parties.
Let us see what we think would happen?
In terms of the thinking of the Obama Administration which is "investigating" this security breach, will a Democratic-campaign donating couple who are going to hold an event in D.C. in the summer which they have invited big wigs such as Obama and the Ambassador of India to the US, really get in trouble? (1)
Will the Obama Administration indict itself, fire White House staff and officials, some maybe even high officials, if it turns out THEY were responsible for the security lapse?(2)
Will it be the non-partisan, professional (and probably predominantly white, male, conservative) U.S. Secret Service that will be found at fault and tossed under the bus? (3)
I think we can come to some initial conclusions, if not initial predictions, Kristinn, as to how this will end up.
My growing theory? Arun K Singh, the "DCM" of the Indian Embassy in D.C. who also went to that State Dinner, may have gotten them into the party somehow, and by-passed security procedures in the process, and may have pulled strings with high officials of the Obama Administration, and therefore the USSS was only carrying out what it was ordered to carry out, but since the Administration will not be transparent, nor fire internal Obama people, the professionals at the Secret Service are being forced to take the blame and a spot under the bus is being readied for them. I am coming around to this position after some 24 hours of thinking about it.
Arabic news agencies (newspapers, websites, TV stations) are already broadcasting and explaining the specifics of "the White House Security Breach by Crashers" in a number of outlets. And gee, guess who also reads these news dispatches--in ARABIC...... including on terrorist websites themselves: http://www.al-hijjawi.com/vb/index.php?page=topic&show=1&id=2418 This story should have longer legs if you ask me, but then again, somebody is probably engaging in cover up and obstruction of justice to save their hide and job, and maybe even the positions of some very senior people who's names we might well recognize:
ضيفان غير مدعوين يحضران حفل عشاء في البيت الأبيض بقلم أريبيان بزنس - رويترزفي يوم الخميس, 26 نوفمبر 2009 zoomنشرت العشرات من الصور في موقع فيس بوك على إنترنت يظهر فيها الزوجان وهما يقفان لالتقاط صور لهما مع ضيوف العشاءقال متحدث أمس الأربعاء إن جهاز أمن الرئاسة يحقق في كيفية دخول رجل وامرأة غير مدعوين إلى حفل عشاء رسمي أقامه الرئيس باراك أوباما في البيت الأبيض بعد أن اخترقا حواجز أمنية. وذكر المتحدث باسم أمن الرئاسة أدوين دونوفان، إن الجهاز المسؤول عن حماية الرئيس وكبار المسؤولين الآخرين يجري مراجعة شاملة للاختراق الأمني الذي حدث يوم الثلاثاء الماضي أثناء حفل العشاء الذي أقيم تكريماً لرئيس الوزراء الهندي مانموهان سينغ. وكانت صحيفة واشنطن بوست أول من كشف عن أن طارق وميشيل صلاحي - وهما زوجان من شمال فرجينيا لم يكونا ضمن القائمة الرسمية للمدعوين- شقا طريقهما إلى الحفل في البيت الأبيض لكن لم يتم اجلاسهما على أي مائدة في الخيمة التي أقيمت بالفناء الجنوبي، والتي شهدت حفل العشاء (Source: Al-Hijawi)
This was not just Obama there. We had INDIAN PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH! Do they realize how stupid, porous and disorganized Americans appear overseas as a result of this, and now that couple trying to cash in on the debacle with six figures!!?
I would have Republican Congressmen and their staff's getting in on this one, particularly members of the Intelligence commmittee(s).
Trivia :
AUGUST 1, 1984 : (TACOMA, WA : JAMAAT UL FUQRA ASSASSINATION OF NEVASKAR, INDIAN GOVERNMENT COURIER LELA NEVASKAR -) al-Fuqra "Muhammad Commandos" or "Soldiers of Allah" are suspects in the assassination in Tacoma, WA of Lela Nevaskar, a courier for then-Indian President Indira Gandhi. Some local and state law enforcement agencies acknowledge that their investigations of some of the assassinations were hampered because they were unaware of Fuqra's existence. On occasion, local police departments learned only years later that evidence found in another part of the country linked the Fuqra to crimes in their cities. That, for instance, was the case in Tacoma, where the Aug. 1, 1984, murder of Lela Nevaskar, a courier for then-Indian President Indira Gandhi, and her sister and brother-in-law, Indira and Pramod Gadre, remains an open case. Jim O'Hern, a Pierce County detective who investigated the triple homicide, said he initially believed the killers were Sikh militants, since the murders occurred several weeks after the Indian government had raided the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, killing hundreds. What appeared to have been a Sikh warning of impending revenge had been mailed in July to Indians in Seattle and elsewhere, ordering them to leave the United States by Aug. 1."We looked at the Sikhs because of the hate literature," O'Hern said.
And I want a full explanation as to exactly what the hell went on over there on my property.
Horrible dress. Kinda looks like an apron made of toilet paper!
How many other politicians were educated at HBS? Is that where Meg Whitman met Mitt Romney, as she also has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and at some point she worked in one of Romney's companies.
CNBC frequently replays their documentaries, so I hope one day to notice that they are going to RE-broadcast the program they did on HBS.
What a complete waste for what otherwise might be smart people, what a waste for our country and for humanity.
About a month ago on the radio someone was discussing a commentary published in the WSJ, but I didn't catch the name of the author. I heard that the author claimed that in the past, the top 40% of HBS grads became professors throughout American universities, and the bottom 60% went to Wall Street but that in the last couple decades what had happened was that the top 40% of the class also went to Wall Street and it was these class "geniuses" -- who were the psycopathic creeps who thought up all the derivitives, established derivative markets, thought up all those worthless financial instruments that made them billionaires and which utterly crashed the world's economy, and have crushed so many individuals. I believe that Harvard Business School should be closed, and its graduates should be removed from any position with any influence.
Do they care if people are homeless, poverty stricken, jobless in this country? I seriously doubt they care if their psychopathic greed causes death in other countries.
Instead of charging them with CRIMES, we are bailing this riffraft out.... giving them billions more, and people claim this to be "the free market"?
I don’t think the two stupid party crashers were part of a shadowy group, rather the article was a shot across the bow. In other words, don’t blame the Secret Service, but look at yourselves and your stupid Chicago cronies.
Previously worked as a Chucky Cheese brawl planner.
LOL
LOL
White House 'gatecrashers' posed with Obama in 2005
"....a June 2005 photo from Polo Contacts Worldwide shows the Salahis with Obama at a pre-event to America's Polo Cup. Others in the photo include American Idol's Randy Jackson and members of the rock group Black Eyed Peas. Salahi is a former board member of the American Task Force on Palestine."
Could this be much ado about nothing. There are so many surrounding the president that have questionable backgrounds how do they distinguish the bad/good visitors.
Do we even know what was accomplish with the Indian PM’s visit?
That is one ugly dress on the nasty-sweet Desiree — must have been inspired by south-side Chicago in a snow-storm.
The dang thing looks like it is cleaning towels pieced together over curtains. Or vice versa.
Not Dr. Mortimer but Professor Moriarty.
“It’s this administration with his cohorts in the media, that is making the Secret Service take responsibility. Why?”
Because one of them told 0bama he couldn’t serve as an SS agent for 0bama and take bullet for a man and his family that were making disparaging remarks about other races/people in the US. And the story got out, even though denied by 0bama’s people.
Sigh... Desiree.
http://www.muckety.com/Query?SearchResult=4564&SearchResult=22431&graph=MucketyMap?_r=2D
Of interest, since the web’s scrubbed:
http://chicagoist.com/2008/01/09/welcome_back_ba.php
For the rest, a reminder of the types we’re dealing with:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2151323/posts?page=1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148297/posts
Des’ ex, John Rogers is number 14 on above... you should know all about him already, if not, see what’s left:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-cclean&p=ariel%20capital%20management%20desiree&type=
Note: you have to get creative on searches to get anything.
I guess no one stopped to think, he wanted them in but not on the list... for good reason. Some don’t look good on record or pass SS muster.
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