I’m sure MoDo and Robin Givhan have all kinds of problems with Desiree Rogers, and maybe some of them are even legtimiate, but there were security breaches at the White House well before Rogers showed up with her Jil Sander wardrobe and trashed the place:
Long before a pair of gate-crashers penetrated a White House state dinner, the Secret Service had detailed for its internal use a lengthy list of security breaches dating to the Carter administration — including significant failures in the agency’s protection of the president.
[…..]Then-Director Brian Stafford commissioned the review in 2001 after the service was humiliated for a third time by the most notorious presidential gate-crasher, Richard C. Weaver, who evaded inauguration security to shake George W. Bush’s hand. Weaver, a California minister, had previously infiltrated a 1991 prayer breakfast attended by then-President George H.W. Bush, and Clinton’s 1997 inaugural luncheon. He approached the younger Bush again at a prayer breakfast in 2003 before being arrested.
“I believe God makes me invisible to the security, undetectable,” Weaver told reporters. The Secret Service concluded that Weaver succeeded by manipulating others to obtain tickets, telling guards he was lost or looking for a restroom, and generally “appearing as [if] you are supposed to be there,” as the Salahis apparently did.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
What are “security breacjes”? Either too fast or too slow I guess.
Maude
He’s a true believer, so what’s the problem?
John PM
My family was talking about this yesterday re: weddings and holiday parties. If you dress nice and lookb like you know what you are doing, the odds of anyone challenging you are very slow. Back in college, the motto of my friends and I was “Wallk with purpose.”
DougJ
What are “security breacjes”?
Typo, sorry.
akaoni
Brilliant title, thanks for the chuckle.
Max
This can’t be true because I’ve heard all the talking heads tell me how this was unprecedented and a direct result of the Obama Admin being the.worst.ever.
WereBear
I hope these breaches have always been that the person is not radiating evil intent; and their intent has not been evil, thus far.
Nonetheless, it is the work of moments to bring on disaster. This is why there are procedures, and workers in security MUST use them.
Getting rounded up because you don’t have the right credentials can be fixed if that is a mistake.
The other way around: NOT.
aimai
Shorter MoDo:
If Obama’s Secret Service let the Salahi’s in/the terrorists win.
aimai
But seriously the only cure for this in re the White House is to physically tag casual dinner guests with a little bar coded chip, embedded in their wrist, for example, that the SS would simply scan every five feet or so. Easy Peasy. I’m sure there will be no argument from cokie et al about that.
aimai
Senyordave
But isn’t Desiree Rogers seating herself at the state dinner the biggest story out there? Obviously much larger than Uganda planning the death penalty for homosexuals, at the encouragement of Rick Warren (I hope that MF’er wakes up with a dead horse in his bed courtesy of Rahm Emmanuel), because I have barely seen that story in the MSM.
It’s also much bigger than anything going on in Afghanistan or Iraq. Or the economy. Or the West Bank or Gaza.
But the War on Christmas is a close second.
Max
Also, too…
This reminds me of the bullshit when Obama didn’t wear a jacket in the Oval and the heads exploded and claimed that Bush always demanded a jacket be worn, until a photo came out that showed that of course, it wasn’t true.
I guess they can’t come straight out and call Ms. Rogers “uppity”
smiley
Last week Glenn beck said on his radio show that the story of the gate crashers was the most important story of the Obama presidency – he then changed the subject almost immediately.
ellaesther
generally “appearing as [if] you are supposed to be there
That’s always been my system!
Jessica
If you’re having hull problems, I feel bad for you son…
That is all.
WereBear
We don’t get “news” any more.
It’s all a reality show!
IndieTarheel
I’m going to go with a sane view on this: procedures will be tightened, personnel changed if need be, and this will become less likely to occur. A satisfactory result from an undesirable event.
__
As for the wailing from the talking heads, let Sean of the Dread and the rest of the Hair Bear Bunch whine – that’s all they’re good for anyway.
SpotWeld
Can we all mutually agree that this story has hit it’s 15th minute.
Perhaps the less we talk about it the less of a chance we’ll have to endure the media chatter when these nutjobs get thier own reality TV show broadast.
Butch
Well, maybe if Jil Sanders doesn’t design breaches, Desiree can go to Donna Karan or Vivienne Westwood…..
GregB
I do find it rather odd that the Iraqi shoe thrower was able to toss off not one, but two shoes directly at George Bush’s head and it didn’t prompt a village seek and destroy mission against the Secret Service or his wife’s social secretary.
-G
Kryptik
Someone answer this, since I’ve tried to ignore the story as much as possible due to the rampant idiocy surrounding it:
Just what makes this Desiree Rogers’ fault, as “White House Social Secretary”, as from what little I bothered to glean from the stories, this was a fuck up of the Secret Service not actually screening people…and I’m not exactly sure the Social Secretary is the head of the Secret Service.
Morbo
This is what really gets me about the “What if they were secret agents like James Bond with clothes covered in Anthrax?” hysteria. James Bond 1) would definitely look as if he were supposed to be there and 2) would probably actually have an invitation. It really makes no sense whatsoever. What exactly makes an uninvited guest who cleared security checkpoints more dangerous than an invited guest who cleared security checkpoints?
Ash Can
@Max:
This. I’m betting that this is the entire kerfluffle in a nutshell. Desiree Rogers is the kind of person who’s as close to royalty as we have in Chicago. She was born into one wealthy, prominent, established, politically connected family and married into another. But she never sat on her duff simply enjoying her privileges; she worked hard and made a name for herself in her own right. The thing is, though, her family and her ex’s family happen to be, um, (stage whispers) black. So it naturally follows that she’s doing a lousy job as White House Social Secretary and has no business being in that position.
I mean, after all, Letitia Baldrige, for example, was simply savaged by the press for her incompetence. Right? Anybody? Bueller?
woody
The name “Guckert/Gannon” might be one to investigate in such a matter, nest paw?
JenJen
One of your best-ever thread titles, DougJ. Ha!!
Svensker
Now we know how Dubya got into the WH.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Morbo:
The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. No way security can screen for that, except by keeping out all the hot looking blond chix.
handy
Really? I thought it was you being a con man, but maybe I just lack faith.
Allan
Breaking: according to unnamed sources, Ms. Rogers also appears to have “cooties” and is a “skank.” Stay tuned for further developments.
KC
I would think that I would have heard of Richard Weaver by now if flummoxing the Secret Service was really as world-shattering an event as the Cons are making it out to be . This is my first exposure to the man, however.
It’s just so Peter King and the Republicans can get access to the social secretary’s calendar, so that he can find the REAL Bill Ayers.
Nellcote
@Barbara:
In the course of party planning, she discussed security with the SS and they signed off on the plan that they would call if there was a problem at the gate. The crashers got through 3 checkpoints and the SS didn’t call any of the social office staff. So the SS screwed up by not following the plan.
Except for one old Bushie, other past social secretaries have come to Roger’s defense. Including Letitia Baldrige.
No, they aren’t.
Church Lady
OK Doug, first it was the wine blogging the other day and then today you drop Jil Sanders’ name. I demand to know what kind of countertops you have.
Zuzu's Petals
When my dad worked at the Pentagon in the early ’50s, one of his jobs was to test security by doing things like leaving paper “bombs” on airplanes. He succeeded just about every time.
He said the secret was to look like you belonged there. No kidding.
DougJ
OK Doug, first it was the wine blogging the other day and then today you drop Jil Sanders’ name.
I don’t really even know who Jil Sander is, they just mentioned her in the Givhan piece and some of my old fashionista friends from the city have mentioned her before.
Ann Rynd
Modo used to be good at this kind of etiquette scolding of White House figures. She practically invented it. We owe her a debt of gratitude for calling out the Ozamandiuses of the 80’s and 90’s. But there are so many on the blogs now who do it so much better and it is a younger person’s game. Someone nearing 60, as Modo is, who snarks at the manners of young current WH women risks looking like a Victorian, a Lady Bracknell with outmoded, imperious hauteur and a furious rudeness when it comes to lapses in decorum. She should stick to griping about policy which she’s good at instead of exhibiting her Georgetown B.A. envy toward Rogers with her Wellesley background and Harvard MBA.