White House Says Party Crashers Not Invited; Crashers Say They Were

[EagerBeaver]

How can there be a dispute over whether they were invited or not?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/01/state.dinner.couple/index.html

I showed up at the recent invitation only, private MG Halloween party without my invitation, which I had forgotten to print out. Fortunately, MG had a system in place for verifying my identity and knowing that I was, in fact, an invited guest. It also didn't hurt that I happened to have arrived at the party with 3 other invited guests- Special K, Cloudsurf, and Rumpleforskin, who all had their invitations with them. But despite this, MG security personnel checked me out, and actually verified that I was on their invitation list.

So if Montreal Girlfriends could figure this out at their Halloween party, how come the Secret Service could not figure out who was crashing a State dinner?

 

[bond_james_bond]

one part: total incompetence, imo

one part: the hot blonde distraction, works every time

mix and shake well

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/party-crashers-call-furor-devastating/article1383856/

 

[Jack_Bauer]

How can there be a dispute over whether they were invited or not?

I'm guessing it's because someone who had the ultimate responsibility to ascertain who could and who could not be allowed to be in close quarters with the President, f*cked up and is now trying to cover his ass on account of a perceived, alleged, fabricated, technical or merely convenient invitational malfunction.

 

[daydreamer41]

How can there be a dispute over whether they were invited or not?

I forget who the person on the radio being interviewed, but this person said this couple are friends of Valerie Jarrett, a Sr. Advsor to Obama. The couple may have hosted a fund raiser for Obama and met him previously. So Jarrett may have invited them and was unable to get them on the official list but was unable to relay the message to them. It sounds like a total mess up.

The husband is an Israeli Arab whose parents had a winery in the US that went bankrupt becuase of the husband's out of control spending. The couple are involved in Democrat party politics and are no strangers to Washington insiders.

I think the Obama administration is more like the Clinton Administration when it comes to the Secret Service. The WH personnel sees the Secret Service as a nuisance. My prediction is that they will not be arrested, and we will never know the truth. Neither Obama, Biden or Emanuel has said anything about this couple. My feeling is that they wish it would go away.

 

[EagerBeaver]

daydreamer41,

I seriously doubt that it is Valerie Jarrett's job to issue invitations to this party. I was of the understanding that this was actually Michelle Obama's job. I could be wrong. But for a misunderstanding to exist on something like this is fairly remarkable. And as I mentioned above, I recently went to a private, invitation-only escort agency party and they had devised a system for checking persons who showed up without the invitation they sent by email and asked invitees to print out. It was a very simple thing they did, and if they could figure it out, I am shocked that nobody at the Secret Service could have devised a similarly simple system, or any system that would have screened out the Salahis.

In the JFK Museum in Boston, there is an exhibit room on the State Dinners held during JFK's presidency and Jacqueline Kennedy personally drafted the guest lists for State Dinners. Several of the exhibits consist of Jackie's handwritten lists consisting of various names being crossed out and added as she went along. I assume the crossouts were due to Jackie being told that those individuals should not be invited, so someone was screening the lists that she drafted. Maybe the Social Secretary or the Secret Service.

In this case the Salahis never got on the list to begin with.

 

[daydreamer41]

EB,

It is conceivable Valerie Jarrett may have told this couple that she was getting them an invitation to this party and communications broke down, and they went. Valerie Jarrett does have connections and knows Michele Obama.

As far as the Secret Service, I heard that there were 2 checkpoints and it was beginning to rain hard and one of the checkpoints was outside. The agent at the first checkpoint got distracted and never checked their ID from the list and the second checkpoint assumed that the first checkpoint checked this couple on the list. This affair could have been a comedy of errors.

The good part is that this couple may have been known to the WH and was never a threat to the President or VP, although in this dangerous world anything is poosible.

 

[Turbodick]

This pair deserves less scorn and more thanks for having pointed out a weakness in security. You can bet it won't happen again (at least until a few years pass and they get lax again). It reminds me of the incident at the PM's residence where an intruder got past Prime Minister Chretien's security detail in the middle of the night and made it as close as outside his bedroom. His wife grabbed an innuit sculpture and was ready to clobber the intruder while Chretien hid under the bed. Who says art has no purpose?

 

[EagerBeaver]

Obama Social Secretary Coming Under Withering Criticism

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20091204/US.Uninvited.Guests.Rogers/

 

[EagerBeaver]

Gibbs Has Insulting Exchange With Media Over Rogers Role In Party Crashing Incident

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl1014