Friday, December 04, 2009
Desirée Rogers
In an attempt to limit the political fallout from the Salahi controversy, the White House refused to send President Barack Obama’s social secretary to Capitol Hill to testify before a congressional committee. Administration officials announced on Wednesday it was invoking the separation of powers argument to keep Desirée Rogers from having to explain to the House Homeland Security Committee why reality TV wannabes Michaele and Tareq Salahi were allowed to crash a White House dinner last week for India’s prime minister.
Many observers were not impressed by the White House’s logic. For example, Mark Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University, told The Washington Post, "It doesn't even pass the laugh test.”
Republicans are also not happy with President Obama’s refusal to allow Rogers to testify before the committee. Representative Peter King (R-NY), the committee’s ranking GOP member, said the White House was “stonewalling” and causing an “unnecessary confrontation with Congress.”
To avoid future gate-crashing incidents, the White House plans to return to the pre-Obama practice of posting members of the social secretary’s office at Secret Service checkpoints for major social events in the event people arrive without proper invitations.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
White House Blocks Testimony on Party Crashers (by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Janie Lorber, New York Times)
Government Openness is Tested by Salahi Case (by Michael D. Shear, Washington Post)
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