Secret Service Falls On Its Sword

Desiree Rogers


Secret Service director Mark Sullivan went before Congress today and shouldered all the blame for the security breakdown which allowed the Salahis to get into a White House dinner last week. Sullivan has announced that three USSS uniformed employees have been placed on administrative lead (thrown under the bus). But what of the White House's culpability in this fiasco? Well, they are doing their best to protect their people from any embarrassment. If they are stonewalling on this dopey incident, God only knows what else this bunch has done and will do in the future to stonewall more serious screw-ups or misdeeds.

So we may never know. The White House (the most transparent in history) has fallen back on that old bit about separation of powers in not allowing Social Director Desiree Rogers to "accept Congress's invitation" to come and testify about what happened. Apparently, only Secret Service personnel were at the White House gate when the "dignitaries" and the Salahis started to arrive. There was no one from the Social Office there to verify the guest list in case of questions. (Of course, there previously was just such a person on staff to handle those matters, but she was let go since "there was no need".) Ms Rogers, resplendent in her evening gown, was inside seated at the table of honor. But why call her to testify when you can just throw the Secret Service folks under the bus?

And here is what Obama's Transparency Czar, Valerie Jarret told NBC's Today Show (as well as ABC's Good Morning America) about why Rogers won't testify: (First you have to sit threw Jarret's spin on the big Jobs Summit today at the White House.)

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Ho hum.

Also still left open to questions is a certain Michele Jones, a White House/DOD official, who was allegedly trying to get the Salahis on the guest list-apparently without success. The Salahis say that they were exchanging cell phone messages with Jones who says she couldn't get them on the list and sent them a message to that effect, but the Salahi's cell phone was dead, so they never got the message, but they sent Jones a message telling her what a great time they had and got a response from Jones telling them how happy she was that they had a good time.

Ms. Jones, would you like to come up to Congress and straighten all this out?

No? OK.

Ditto for the Salahis, who are also too busy to come see Congress. After all, they are too busy visiting with folks like Matt Lauer and enjoying their 15 minutes of fame.

By the way, do you really think people like the Salahis would ever let their cell phones go dead?

But apparently, Congress is thinking of sending the Salahis more than "invitations". Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, says that he may issue a subpoena to the Salahis. That way, if they don't show up, they may be subject to charges of "contempts of Congress."

That's right, contempts of Congress. One contempt for Michaele and one contempt for Tareq.

Homeland Security: Bennie Thompson, Janet Napolitano. Sleep well, America.