Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House on Friday named Jeremy Bernard to serve as social secretary to President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama, the first male and first openly gay person to hold the position. The high profile job, traditionally filled by a woman, will put Bernard in ultimate charge of dispensing sumptuous White House hospitality at events from state dinners to holiday parties, concerts and tours of the presidential mansion. "Jeremy shares our vision for the White House as the People's House, one that celebrates our history and culture in dynamic and inclusive ways," Obama said in...

The White House is set to make news and history this afternoon when it announces the new social secretary. Jeremy Bernard, currently the chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to France, will become the third person to hold the job in the Obama administration. But he will be the first man and the first openly gay person to be the first family's and the executive mansion's chief event planner and host. *snip* Bernard and his then-partner Rufus Gifford were early supporters of Obama in California. And they raised a ton of money for him through their company, B&G Associates....

One goal of President Barack Obama's state dinner Wednesday will be to make Mexican President Felipe Calderon feel like the man of the hour. Another will be to keep uninvited guests from crashing the party. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama weren't as lucky with their first dinner last November, for India's prime minister, when more than 300 guests dined and danced in a pavillion-like tent on the South Lawn. Only after the last song had been sung did the White House learn of an embarrassing breach in presidential security that allowed a husband-and-wife duo to crash the party and...

Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, is resigning her position just a few months after she was roundly criticized for a security lapse that led to uninvited guests crashing the president's first state dinner. "It's been a tremendous experience and honor to serve this president and first lady in what is really a historic presidency for all Americans but particularly for African-Americans," she said in a brief telephone interview. "That is part of the reason I came out to do the job." Ms. Rogers was a newcomer to politics as well as to Washington, and in her first year...