White House Gatecrashers: Fascinating?

Filed in National by on November 28, 2009

We haven’t covered the story of the state dinner crashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi here at DL because it didn’t seem like a big deal. The Salahis managed to get past Secret Service security, which raises some eyebrows, but ultimately nothing happened. The Salahis managed to get photographed with Rahm Emmanuel, Joe Biden and even President Obama. It’s quite embarrassing for the Secret Service but it will lead to improved security procedures in the long run, right? So why has this become a media obsession?

The story is being covered endlessly in the media. The Washington Post has a long story about the Salahis, which is embarrassing for them – exposing them as fame whores with padded resumes. A quick Google search yielded more than 3000 articles about the incident. There’s even talk about a Congressional investigation into the incident and the Salahis could even face criminal charges.

So, what do you think? Is this story fascinating? Why is the media obsessed and what does it say about our media that this story obsesses them?

Tags: ,

About the Author ()

Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (25)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. anon says:

    I love this story, just because it had to have taken such brass ones to pull it off.

  2. Exactly anon. I find it ridiculous that the Salahis could face charges. As far as I’m concerned they did nothing wrong. It’s the Secret Service who fell down on the job.

  3. Unbiased American says:

    Read about the inauguration of Andrew Jackson and the way that the common people were allowed access to the president in an earlier time. Heck, read about how people came and waited for a chance to meet Lincoln in the White House in the midst of the Civil War. I find it rather sad that We the people don;t get access to what is, after all, OUR house, and OUR president.

  4. Brooke says:

    I don’t know whether they “did nothing wrong.” If they’re convicted of a crime, they should go to jail. Personally, I doubt very much that they could have gotten in without breaking at least ONE law, as well as several commandments, and I’m perfectly happy to see anyone on Bravo go to jail for the SLIGHTEST of reasons, although I stop short of waterboarding. 😉

    Like the balloonboy hoax. I want those people in jail and their kids taken.

  5. cassandra_m says:

    The biggest reason I would like these people to be sanctioned in some way is because this reality TV shit should be contained to the realities of the people who think that there is something important about reality TV. Politics is already stupid enough without having to live with the whole reality-TV culture with it.

    /snob

  6. Rebecca says:

    A few years back I might have thought this was mildly amusing. But in the culture of hate that has grown up around the right-wing asylum this is more serious than amusing. Maybe I’ve lost my sense of humor or maybe it’s just all the doom and gloom in the news these days, but I’m simply livid at the Secret Service today.

  7. Dana Garrett says:

    If there were a law against party crashing, think of how many Americans would spend time in jail.

  8. Unbiased American says:

    Given we elected the reality TV candidate in 2008, why shouldn’t reality show cast members be at state dinners?

  9. cassandra_m says:

    “We” did not elect the reality TV candidate for President in 2008, but if your reality is anchored in your TV set, you should turn off your computer and get back to that TV.

    Where apparently you and couple you know elected Tom DeLay to something. Even if he can’t dance.

  10. gecko says:

    if/when the facts come out, we will learn that the Secret Service stopped the couple at the entrance and that a Senior member of the Whitehouse Staff waived them through even though they were not on the guest list.

    The Secret Service does not set the guest list or have veto power over who enters the Whitehouse. Their responcibility to is to minimize the risk to the President.

    Hopefully this event will cause the Whitehouse political staff to recognize the the value of the experiance of the professional support staff.

  11. Unbiased American says:

    Oh, and there seems to be some evidence that a member of the Indian Embassy staff may have gotten them in.

  12. Unbiased American says:

    By the way, Rebecca, when you blather on about “the culture of hate that has grown up around the right-wing asylum”, are you talking about the so-called murder of a census employee down in Kentucky? You know, the one that turned out to be a suicide with a twist of insurance fraud? In that case, the only hate was that spewed by the left-wing hate machine when liberal media personalities and bloggers laid the blame for Sparkman’s death at the feet of their political opponents because they had dared to exercise their First Amendment right to engage in political speech of the nature that had been labeled “the highest form of patriotism” when the Left did it during the Bush years.

    Indeed, have any of those lefties bothered to admit that they were hatefully wrong in their assessment, and apologize to those patriotic Americans who they libeled by name (Limbaugh, Beck, Palin Bachman, etc)? You know, since the left claims to be the “reality based community”. Or is their reality, like their president, not grounded in the truth?

  13. MJ says:

    I think they should be brought up on charges (trespassing?) and as part of their plea bargain they can never profit from this, even mentioning it on Facebook or on The “Real” HOuSewives of DC” if she gets on it. I’m also interested in what Bravo TV execs actually knew about their plans to crash the party.

    I agree with Cassandra about “reality” TV.

  14. cassandra_m says:

    Hey, RWR or Unbiased American or whatever your sockpuppet name is today — your post is not on topic for this thread.

    You are warned and might just be gone for the sockpuppetry.

  15. Unbiased American says:

    Cassandra — I figured that since “the culture of hate that has grown up around the right-wing asylum” is on topic, I’d point out that said culture of hate does not exist and that the actual hatemongers are planted residing comfortably on the left.

  16. cassandra_m says:

    No — what you figured is that you would hijack this thread with more of your bullshit. So stop it.

  17. Andy says:

    What a crazy story. Someone from the Secret Service had to get fired/reassigned for this. I wonder what they said to get in, and if they lied about who they were or their credentials.

  18. missundaztood says:

    You can’t have gate crashers at the White House, ever, and the President of the United States can never look that vulnerable. Someone should be fired.

  19. Rebecca says:

    Sorry Cassandra for going off topic but,

    Unbiased, I never blather. These are pearls of wisdom I share here.

    Onward!

  20. MJ says:

    It now seems that these two starfu***rs are trying to sell their story to the highest bidder for somewhere in the range of $500,000.

  21. Brooke says:

    You know, if they actually do that AND someone was fired over it, wonder if that money could be tapped for victims compensation. I’d certainly be getting a lawyer to try for it.

  22. a.price says:

    how can anyone not be outraged? Put it into context with these facts
    1The right wing CONSTANTLY paints obama as a danger to all things american… a force that must be stopped.. at any cost.
    2 Obama received more death threats in his first month in office than did Bush AND Clinton in their combinded terms… he continues to get them
    3 the secret service did not do a good enough job protecting another president. (kennedy)

    Not only should they be charged, but careers should end. Their intentions were not violent, but in my opinion the country got lucky. It is infuriating that a president with as many hate groups dedicated to eliminating him as this one has such a failure of a secret service detail.

  23. J.Stewart says:

    nothing to see here folks, move along…

    White House ‘Stonewalling’ »
    NY Daily News ^ | 12/2/2009 | Michael McAuliff

    The White House says it will not send social secretary Desiree Rogers up to the Hill to testify about how a couple of alleged gate-crashers sashayed into the India state dinner last week uninvited.

    And that “is clearly stonewalling,” Rep. Pete King (R-Long Island) told The Mouth.

    King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, wanted Rogers to come explain, either in private or public, why no one from her office was at the White House entrance where Michaele and Tareq Sahali made their now-infamous entrance.

    Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson agreed with King, and invited Rogers to attend.

    The Mouth was informed earlier that Rogers would not be coming, and White House mouthpiece Robert Gibbs just made it official.

  24. Lizard says:

    When asked what she does with event crashers, Rogers replied (to much laughter), that she’s begun adding an extra table, row, or bench to every event she produces, as each time she found extra people would show up in hopes of gaining entrance. “Lots of people just come anyways, they won’t take no for an answer,” she said. “Finally I just said, ‘Alright, come on in, it’s no use kicking you out.'”
    Party Planner Trade Magazine “Biz Bash” June 2009

    hmmmm makes you wonder who is being “invited” but kept off the official guest list…

  25. Progressive Mom says:

    I dunno, Lizard, we never did find out why that male prostitute had a press pass to the White House during the Bush Administration, and kept logging himself in at odd times….

    Oh, wait, that was a Republican administration.

    Never mind.