Patterico's Pontifications

11/25/2009

White House Gatecrashers (Updated)

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 6:34 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

It appears that two Virginia socialites and aspiring reality TV show participants crashed last night’s White House state dinner:

“A couple of aspiring reality-TV stars from Northern Virginia appear to have crashed the White House’s state dinner Tuesday night, penetrating layers of security with no invitation to mingle with the likes of Vice President Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi — polo-playing socialites known for a bitter family feud over a Fauquier County winery and their possible roles in the forthcoming “The Real Housewives of Washington” — were seen arriving at the White House and later posted on Facebook photos of themselves with VIPs at the elite gathering. “

Reportedly, it’s the first time anyone has crashed a state dinner. The couple said they had a great time, and they have pics of themselves with “Ron” Emanuel and a “grinning” VP Biden to prove it.

— DRJ

UPDATE 11/26/2009: More on the happy couple here.

24 Responses to “White House Gatecrashers (Updated)”

  1. OMG. Egg meet Face. It’s funny, but then again…

    WTF? That’s bad. Really bad. No one should be able to ever get through that security.

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  2. DRJ…sorry to address you here, I know of no other means. That said….we need a thread on the new scandal of global warming….I really mean “purported”. There is little if any coverage on MSM. This is epic stuff. As of this moment HuffPO has no mention of it. And, Teh One is in Copenhagen.

    Angelo (5df281)

  3. “Everyone who enters the White House grounds goes through magnetometers and several other levels of screenings,” said Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service. “That was the case with the state dinner last night. No one was under any risk or threat.”

    Donovan said a preliminary internal investigation Wednesday identified “a Secret Service checkpoint which did not follow proper procedure to ensure these two individuals were on the invited guest list.” He declined to give further details.

    Sure, he can say there was no risk *after* the fact but if it’s a State dinner and party crashers have successfully gotten in, he doesn’t know at the time if anyone is at risk. He sounds rather cavalier about it. After the fact.

    So if on one is at risk if a party crasher makes it through, then why have the protocols necessary in the first place?

    Dana (e9ba20)

  4. Eh… So if on no one…

    Dana (e9ba20)

  5. They must have displayed “great personalities”.

    AD - RtR/OS! (b005ed)

  6. Good grief. Let’s hope the WH approved the stunt. Otherwise, those two women should be arrested.

    Patricia (b05e7f)

  7. Ummm yeah it’s very funny. They went through magnetometers and everything!

    They weren’t supposed to be there. The President, Vice President, Indian Prime Minister, White House Chief of Staff, First Lady, and many prominent American politicians and private citizens were in attendance, and two people who weren’t supposed to be there got in.

    This isn’t 1861 and President Lincoln isn’t throwing the doors to the White House open for an hour or more every morning for just anybody to walk in and try to do business with the President. If you wanted to kill the President, or anyone there, in a setting like that you wouldn’t need to bring any weapons, you’re going to get close to them sometime during the evening and who knows what could happen.

    Maybe all the good Secret Service men begged and scraped to be picked to go on Bush’s post-presidential detail after the Inauguration and Obama’s left with the second string. Someone messed up somewhere and it’s a funny but serious lack of competent security in dangerous times.

    chaos (9c54c6)

  8. Well, Thank GOD they went through magnetometers to make sure they didn’t bring any sharp metal objects in with them!

    Um, did everyone use plastic cutlery for the dinner part of this State Dinner?

    Icy Texan (917558)

  9. I didn’t know that dirty socialist Pepsi hoochie was there. She’s pretty feral to where you have to watch her or she starts flipping people off. She’s just trashy like that.

    happyfeet (0003d3)

  10. THAT IS SCAARY. you couldn’t pay me to be there, in all candor, but ugh it is scary that the security is that lacking

    drone (64189f)

  11. Rumor has it that Michael Moore read about this breach and is absolutely FURIOUS that he didn’t think of showing up to freeload, too. That published menu looked soo yummy.

    elissa (4a1d77)

  12. Something could have happened to Joe “God love ya’ Biden.

    Gazzer (f4dafa)

  13. Comment by Gazzer — 11/25/2009 @ 8:43 pm

    Bite your tongue!

    AD - RtR/OS! (b005ed)

  14. I read MTV’s real world was filming at the White house today.

    There’s a concerted effort to make this a dramatic celeb show of a presidency. Who’s to say this wasn’t a staged gate crashing? The White House is the place with the wildest, most expensive, most elite parties. Obama’s the richest dude in world history! He spends trillions on basically nothing. That’s gotta put Paris H to shame.

    Dustin (cf255c)

  15. Hey! Neighbor Kurt was the entertainment! Did Jen get to attend as well? Fun fact for those not from Hyde Park — K&J bought Obama’s apartment

    Obama's Neighbor (f28dac)

  16. why the worry? it’s not like anyone important was at risk…..

    i say we take 4-6 months to debate this issue before we even begin to talk about coming to a possible conclusion as to what we might want to maybe do about it.

    after all, if its good enough for Afghanistan, it’s good enough for Ear Leader.

    F him.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  17. redc1c4 you are exactly right. Much discussion and many meetings are required to decide whether or no there is a threat. In the meantime, we must attack the “leaker”.

    krusher (e0c137)

  18. I like what was posted on another site, so I am stealing it…

    What is the problem, they are simply “undocumented” guests.

    They should have been given prime seats at the lead table along their choice of jewelry and wallet contents from the other attendees.

    LogicalUS (37c907)

  19. The glamor of the New Camelot is so appealing that it is indeed proving irresistible. Count this as two more guests created or saved.

    Beldar (ec928b)

  20. “Undocumented guests,” LOL, that’s a keeper.

    Patricia (b05e7f)

  21. I guess all the knives and forks at the dinner tables were missing?! Sorry to disagree with the Secret Service but…people were at risk.

    Eagle's Dominioon (108dc2)

  22. This sounds like the inspiration of a “Pink Pantheresque” movie, “The White House Crashers”- Maybe Steve Martin will take it on.

    While this obviously is an issue, I imagine there is no law in showing up to a party uninvited, unless they lied to federal officials to get in. (“We’re the guest Sitar players…”). Are these folks in legal jeopardy after bragging about it?

    MD in Philly (227f9c)

  23. Suggested name-change for their reality show:

    “We’re Doing Serious Time For Trespassing on Federal Property”

    Icy Texan (66eab9)

  24. I’ve updated the post with more on the gatecrashers.

    DRJ (dee47d)


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