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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...

They really got into it .. and April held her ground and gave it right back (see transcript below) VIDEO

If White House social secretary Desiree Rogers survives this week's withering attacks for her role in last week's state dinner security breach, she'll have gotten by with a lot of help from her friends in the West Wing. As a House committee opened hearings Thursday on how two uninvited partygoers were able to enter the White House grounds and shake hands with President Barack Obama, top presidential aides delivered a clear message to critics of this favored staffer: Back off. In a White House not known for its tolerance of staffing errors, Rogers has been the beneficiary of an unprecedented...

This is kind of like asserting executive privilege to block disclosure of the White House chef’s recipe file. Even lefties can’t believe it: [I]t is literally inconceivable that anyone drafting the Constitution would have imagined the position of White House Social Secretary, paid for with taxpayer funds, and that the majesty of separation of powers rhetoric would apply to a situation like this…. This is simply yet more evidence that all presidents, regardless of political party and ostensible commitment to “transparency,” take on royalist airs when taking their oath of office. Congress wants to talk to her about how the...

A random websurf today shows no shortage of prominent coverage in the Arabic language media including running commentary on the fiasco as well as in some cases detailed background explanations as to how the recent State Dinner security breach occured at the White House and uncleared people were able to come into close access with the President of the United States and visiting The Prime Minister of India.One such outlet is Arab Times in Arabic, located in the United States, but many other outlets are carrying it outside of the USA--including on some questionable sites. This appeared on Arabic...

The White House on Wednesday invoked the separation of powers to keep Desiree Rogers, President Obama’s social secretary, from testifying on Capitol Hill about how a couple of aspiring reality television show celebrities crashed a state dinner for the prime minister of India last week. And the couple will not testify, either, according to a statement released late Wednesday by a public relations firm.

Fox reporting. Gibbs has changed his story from "unauthoized people at the reception" to "an internal affair covered by executive privilege." Says will ignore subpoenas.

The White House will not allow Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify on Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee, which is looking into how aspiring reality TV stars Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed President Obama's Nov. 24 state dinner, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. And, as the Obama White House kicks off its heaviest entertaining season of the year, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina ordered new guidelines on Thursday to avoid a repeat of such an incident. Messina issued a memo spelling out that in the future personnel from the Social Office will be on...

White House party crashers and Khalidi Rashidi associates, Tareq and Michaele Salahi are insisting that they did not crash the fete but were invited guests. This revlation came during a whinefest on NBC’s Today show. The publicity obsessed couple hoping to score a show on Bravo are now bleating about unwanted attention. “Everything we worked for . . . for me 44 years, it’s been destroyed,” according to Michaele. This from the couple who managed to run the family business into the ground and are defendants in multiple lawsuits for not paying the bills for their lavish lifestyle. Predictably, the...

State Dinner Crashers Exchanged E-Mails With Pentagon Official The special assistant to the Secretary of Defense, who was appointed by Obama, said she clearly stated in correspondence with the couple that she could not extend any kind of invitation. By Josh Meyer and Peter Nicholas November 30, 2009 Reporting from Washington - As Congress prepares to examine how a Virginia couple crashed the first state dinner of the Obama administration, the pair may be pointing to e-mail correspondence they had with a senior Pentagon official as evidence that they were invited guests after all. Federal authorities say Tareq and Michaele...

The couple who crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denies that she helped the couple get in. Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House on Monday evening that she never said or implied she would get Michaele and Tareq Salahi into the Nov. 24 White House dinner. "I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access...

Will Obama Throw Desiree Rogers Under the Bus for State Dinner Fiasco?Obama State Dinner Fiasco - Will Desiree Rogers Get Thrown Under the Bus? (Part Two woth video)A bombshell claim by a friend of Michaele Salahi last night on Larry King Live could end up blowing White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers out of the East Wing and under the Obama bus of discarded friends and associates.Politico reported on what was said on Larry King Live:As far as I know, they were invited," said Teresa Foss-Conlan, one of three Salahi friends who appeared on King's CNN show Monday night after...

Read part one here.White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers has been dodging the heat so far for her failure to ensure the first state dinner by the Obama administration went off without embarrassing the Obamas.Worse still, her failure resulted in a potentially lethal security breakdown that has international repercussions.Slowly the press, which adores Rogers almost as much as they adore her boss First Lady Michelle Obama, are beginning to look past the acknowledged faults of the Secret Service to Rogers' failed stewardship of the dinner.Rebecca Dana and Lloyd Grove have a devastating article at the Daily Beast that noted several...

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...

The Obamas' high-profile party planner isn't your typical White House social secretary. Desiree Rogers, 49, has planned egalitarian balls, poetry slams and major concerts at the White House. She has also appeared in the front row next to Anna Wintour during a runway show at New York Fashion Week. The stylish fashionista isn't just a social planner -- she's a socialite herself. Rogers told the Chicago Tribune that she is trying to bring glamour, history and an urban sensibility to the White House as her role as social secretary -- and most of all, she wants to create what she...

For eight years, the president of the United States — the ex-officio socialite in chief — has turned up his nose at the slightest whiff of social aspiration. Now a new generation of Washington socialites has a dream. They see a dashing, young, brilliant president and his equally brilliant wife ushering in an era of inclusive entertaining. Gone is the white-gloved, debutante-loving, Pilgrim-pedigreed culture that still mattered in Kennedy’s Camelot and Reagan’s Hollywood East. Starting Jan. 20, when President Barack Obama and Michelle move into the White House, the “in crowd” will include just about everyone who, since the dawn...

WASHINGTON -- Desiree Rogers, a former New Orleans Zulu queen and daughter of a former city councilman, was named incoming White House social secretary on Monday by President-elect Barrack Obama.

Desirée Rogers, Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary: Rogers is one of the most high profile executives in the Midwest and over the past 16 years has headed two major corporations. She is recognized as an innovative leader with a proven track record. Most recently, Rogers joined Allstate Financial as the President of Social Networking to develop an internet based community among the firm's 12 million households focused on financial discussions among everyday Americans. In 1997, Rogers joined Peoples Energy, a Chicago based natural gas company serving 2 million customers and became its utilities president in...