The Salahis came in and trashed the place and it wasn’t their place (via Digby and Atrios):
When Ms. Salahi sidled up to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., she was faking a friendship she didn’t have. She was also cutting ahead of thousands of people who spend years trying to win entry into gatherings of Washington’s elite.
“At most parties in New York or Los Angeles, a bouncer will make a snap decision about whether to let you in depending on your looks or some shtick that that sets you apart,” says Juleanna Glover, a Washington hostess and a founder of the Ashcroft Group, a legal and consulting firm. “In Washington, there are no snap decisions. It’s a lifetime of wise decisions that make it so that you receive a state dinner invitation.”
[…..]When the Salahis put their collection of digital snaps of the state dinner on Facebook, they flouted all the unwritten rules of power-wall etiquette. (Including a new one that nobody had thought to mention: Don’t put your power wall on Facebook.) As an enhancer of prestige, these photographic menageries always target a certain audience — constituents in the case of politicians, potential clients in the case of lobbyists. It tells those audiences, “I know how to get things done.”
For letting this happen, Desiree Williams deserves to be waterboarded, I’m sure.
Brian Griffin
“In Washington, there are no snap decisions. It’s a lifetime of wise decisions that make it so that you receive a state dinner invitation.”
Yeah, that’s how we got Sarah Palin.
arguingwithsignposts
I’m sure that never happens in Washington, especially in Congress. Because I honestly don’t know why there’s not more neck-punching going on in the well of the house or senate every day.
which is why I’m not a politician.
Rock
Man, these people…the Salahis and those that care about them, just suck. Depressing that people possessed of high-school clique vapidity run this country.
jwb
Remind me why I’m still supposed to care about the gate crashing. Seriously, this is a story that should have lasted at best one news cycle.
robertdsc
The Mayan calendar can’t run out soon enough.
Chameleon
There once was a Woody Allen movie called “Zelig” where the main character showed up in the background of some of the most famous events of the twentieth century. In the same vein, Forrest Gump was there for a lot of important events but never understood the significance of what was going on around him. These people are more never was, never will be. Move along, nothing to see here.
beltane
This is one of the most boring news stories to get this amount of play in recent memory. I was hoping it would be eclipsed by Tiger’s erotic adventures, but no such luck.
RSA
Well, I guess you gotta have some kind of ambition in life…
El Cid
Maybe the Washington establishment types could have more clearly defined contests — males could build large nests from scrap materials, or develop sacks and pouches on their neck which they could inflate for loud sounds or for visual display. Females could initiate elaborate dance rituals or perhaps grow larger than males and bit the winning males heads off… Wait, what was I talking about?
demkat620
It’s their Village.
All of us little people need to keep the fuck off of David Broder’s lawn!
DougJ
I was hoping it would be eclipsed by Tiger’s erotic adventures, but no such luck.
My sentiments exactly.
J. Michael Neal
Honest to god, this makes me feel a little better about these two barnacles on the keel of society. Had they done this anywhere else, they’d just be two more shallow people that the world would probably be better off not having to support. However, the Washington society described here deserves to have its rules broken and its members outraged.
I hope they all choke on the olive in their martini.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Rock: This.
Just Some Fuckhead
@beltane:
Christ, I’m sick of hearing about Tiger Woods. Can we dig up Michael Jackson and kill him again?
DougJ
Christ, I’m sick of hearing about Tiger Woods. Can we dig up Michael Jackson and kill him again?
Cheer up. It’s probably shark attack season somewhere in the world.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I heard he was cremated and had his ashes scattered in a pre-school sand box?
(I heard that here months ago by AKA dad? GnomeDad? Some Dad. And I nominated it for Comment of the Year and I still think it’s the BEST of the year and the year is almost done.)
Leelee for Obama
I was just gonna say I didn’t want to hear another thing about these slime-buckets or Mr. Woods. The Salahis should get subpoenas and Woods should get some serious mental counseling, and normal folk should ignore them amap. And this is from a major Tiger Wood’s fan! I’m so over this high-school crap.
Laura W
@DougJ: Have you landed? Because I’ve been saving something for you all afternoon.
I wanted to tell you that your Mariah Carey is no match for this woman, DougJ!
Sly
Alternative Headline:
Amateur Famewhores Upset Professional Famewhores
gwangung
@Sly: Win!
Max
And if not her, at least Desiree Rogers, the White House Social Secretary, should be.
/typo_alert
bago
I’ve been living in DC for two months and the description of it as a conservative town barely does it justice. The idea of someone stepping out of their role and just doing something is completely alien to this town. It’s like the polar opposite of burning man. Instead of treating identity as a disposable set of attributes and behavior, identity is sacrosanct, never to be changed, and is the key to advancement in an insular culture where connections matter more than skill.
Cat Lady
@bago:
Sadly, this.
gnomedad
@Laura W:
Nope, not mine, FYI.
gnomedad
@J. Michael Neal:
Me, too, and I didn’t think that was possible.
MNPundit
You know, the more I learn about this whole thing the better the Salahis look.
Cerberus
Ugh, what’s most apparent with this and also any tale about most rich people is how bloody feudal it is. These jokers have turned our supposedly democratic system into a high court where courtiers vie with each other for better access and connections with the movers and shakers of the court and hiss their claws at the very idea of a peasant sneaking in with a stolen dress.
No wonder our media keeps treating and selling the president as some form of king (a conceit way too many of us buy into) and senators can act so indispensable (they are the favored noble houses, no peasant shall dethrone them). There is a rot of European envy and not actual Europe today, but the sanitized Renn Faire version of their history (how much better would we all be if we just bought the senators and media lifetime passes to the SCA to get out their feudalism needs).
The same thing is occurring in our rich of course, the same idea that laws shouldn’t ever apply to them and that the people should pay any demands made of them, up to and including sequestering themselves in castles (gated communities) with their own militia (rent-a-cops patrolling) and moats (white flight).
Dan
LOL, as an “European subject” I always wondered what would have happened if the degenerate aristocracy wasn’t swept away by the revolutions, two world wars and progress in general…
How would aristocratic feudalism survive in a meritocratic and industrial age (It won’t, yep your F**ed).
I think I have found it in modern America, the happy fully conscious suicide is so deliciously funny!
Savage Henry
At first I just didn’t care about this story, but as Washington Society and Villager panties get more and more wadded up, the more I love it.
Maybe if we keep this going long enough, someone will challenge Mr. Salahi to a duel.
R-Jud
@beltane:
Tiger Woods does have a near-perfect porn star name, now that I think about it.
Mark
The Salahis sound like thoroughly unpleasant people. But Doug, I’m a bit surprised that you’re joining with the Villagers as they pile on.
The biggest sin these people seem to have committed was social striving. The horror!
Tonybrown74
@Rock:
Not High School, my friend.
Middle School …
LanceThruster
It now it looks as if the simpleminded have almost completely assimilated Washington
comrade thalarctos
@Cerberus (#27)
You seemed to be circling about a one-word definition of what the whole system has become, but without uttering that name; so, if I may–