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She came to the White House as a FOO (Friend of Obama) of the highest rank, with a fine New Orleans pedigree and a reputation for high style.
But after a White House dinner gone wrong, she became a punching bag for critics of the Obama administration who labeled her as the face of incompentent political cronyism.
Now embattled White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, criticized for her role in the state dinner party fiasco in November, is resigning her administration post.
Rogers, a New Orleans native and personal friend of First Lady Michelle Obama, came to the White House to oversee social events at the White House.
Rogers, however, came under severe criticism, after party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi visited the White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 24th. The Salahis didn't have invitations to the dinner, and the episode brought in to question White House security operations.
For a time, members of Congress sought to force Rogers testimony on the chain of events that brought the Salahis to the White House for the state dinner. White House officials, however, rebuffed those overtures even though a representative of the Secret Service was permitted to testify.
If Rogers had nothing to hide, why would the White House fight to keep her from testifying?
That question made the rounds among Washington power brokers and sealed Rogers fate.
It's hard to tell if Rogers deserved such a brief and embarrassing exit from the White House, because she never had the opportunity to fully explain her role in the state dinner mess. Rogers acknowledged that she didn't have her staffers checking identification as guests checked in to the party, but was that the sole reason the security breach occurred?
It's a game as old as politics themselves. Someone had to take the fall for such a high-profiled White House gaffe and it turned out to be Rogers.
By all accounts, President Obama is fiercely loyal to his friends and associates. But when they become political liabilities, personal relationships go straight to the back burner.
Comments: (20)
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By: EB on 2/27/2010 8:34AM
You are such an ignorant a$$hole. Your comment reflects your intelligence- - zero. This country went down under the leadership of White Men, (i.e.,President Reagan, 1st President Bush, & 2nd President bush). How juvenile and foolish of you to think 1 year and 2 months under the leadership of a brilliant black man can take a country down. Then his predecessors didn't do a great job establishing this country or America is not what the hell people of your IQ level think any way. Do everyone a favor, stay of the blogs unless you can comment sensibly. Is that too hard for you to do? .....
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By: zroiand on 2/27/2010 1:02PM
The main question here is whether the "party crashers" were on the guest list or not. If not, they should not have been allowed to enter the dinner, period!!! It is not unreasonable, IMO, to designate the task of "list checker" to a Secret Service agent whose job it is to protect the President in all situations. Standing at the door and checking a list of invited guests is not THAT hard for most people, and especailly for those trained as Secret Service Agents. The party crashers maintained and were willing to testify that they were invited. If so, by whom? Could it be that Ms. Rodgers or one of her staff just assumed, based on their appearance, dress, talk that these people were apart of the elite social circle? This is indeed a teachable moment.
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By: OOOZZZZZ on 2/27/2010 10:42PM
Quotes by Jewel: "Inexperienced? What are you talking about? This woman has organized over 100+ events that went perfectly in 2009.
"Nevertheless, I will say that someone from her immediate staff should have been present at the East Gate along with the Secret Service personnel as a security reinforcement".
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Yes, she was inexperienced and ultimately it was her complete responsibility as well as her total accountability, as the head of the WH Social Secretary Office, to ensure that all invited guests to this State Dinner (or any WH social function) were properly listed in a professional manner, cross checked, ID'ed along with the Sercet Service personnel and to ensure that the Secret Service was not left holding the bag in this situation.
The SS have a tough enough time protecting the Prez 24/7, 365 without having some other WH agency dropping the ball the way Ms. Rogers did.
In these positions of high level political service, there are no second chances to harm or completely embarass the Prez. The is zero tolerence territory.
You stated that "that someone from her immediate staff should have been present at the East Gate along with the Secret Service personnel as a security reinforcement."
My question to you is: who has the ultimate responsibility for that? For assigning her staff member that responsibility? Ensuring that someone from her staff is present at all times at the East Gate? Ensuring that someone from her staff is completely briefed well beforehand and checked on repeately via radio communications as the event is going on?
Not the Secret Service. The communicate among themselves. It's the Social Secretary, Ms. Rogers job to ensure that that position was properly filled and she failed.
The Salahi's, the uninvited "party crashers" roamed throughout that State Dinner and stood mere inches from the President, shaking his hand and taking photos.
If the Salahi's had an terrorist agenda (besides tha fact that they snuck in) and wanted to harm the Prez in any way, then the Secret Service had very little reaction time to stop anything that would have progressed.
Besides being a total embrassment now known around the world, it also could have been a tragedy.
It could have been a personal/verbal assault, a physical assault, it could have been a knife, it could have been a gun etc.......and who would be the person ultimately responsible for this act occuring and the Salahi's being there, uninvited, not listed, totally unchecked and not turned around at the entrance because there was no proper Social Secretary staffer at the entrance working in tandem with the Secret Service?
Ms. Desiree Rogers.
You also stated that "This woman has organized over 100+ events that went perfectly in 2009".
It only takes one screw-up to assassinate the President and that situation, my friend, could have been the one.
That's why they fired her incomptent ass.
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By: Nikki on 3/05/2010 11:39PM
You are really good at bashing this woman. I am beginning to think this is personal. Just to inform you of protocol, it is the secret service's responsibility to protect the president as well as the white house from any danger, foreign or domestic, not a social secretary. You mention that the secret service agent had a list of invitees then you mention he did not. Which is it? Either way the secret service agent was in charge of entry at the door and chose to allow entry although he could not verify the party crashers' status. Thus he dropped the ball and deserved the repercussions.
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By: Nancy on 2/28/2010 9:36AM
Yes, Ms. Rogers had some blame in this matter, but so did the SS. All that needed to be done, was turn these people away as their name was not on the list. But since they "looked" the part, white and wealthy, they were given a pass. Based on her background and experience, I do not believe Ms. Rogers is incompetent at all...she's just taking the rap on this one.
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By: Jewel on 2/28/2010 10:32AM
My point exactly. Thank you Nancy.
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By: OOOZZZZZ on 2/28/2010 10:47AM
Quote by Nancy: "Based on her background and experience, I do not believe Ms. Rogers is incompetent at all...she's just taking the rap on this one."
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A resume, backgound and experience does not make someone suitable to do certain things and in this case, Ms. Rogers, despite her Ivy League education (MBA) and past work in the corporate sector, does not give her the proper backgound and experience to do this job.
Many people in position of responsibility & accountability love to bask in the glow of the title the hold but are actually unfit, educated or not: and won't/can't do the work that the job description actually requires.
And many have gotten there (making the big $$$, influence & power) the same way that Ms. Rogers did with this position in the WH. Not by hard work, but through friendships, close relationships, ass kissing & the hook-up.
And the ironic thing about this is that she has a Masters of Business Adminstration (MBA), the optimal educational (not technical or real world managerial) skill set of management skills that is supposed to ensure that someone with that level of education could have performed this simple task & function (properly assigning someone or herself, at the East Gate with an accurate listing, alongside the SS to properly screen guests and, with radio in hand, either check by commo-check or manually, on the status of the situation thoughout the State Dinner) but as with many departments heads/leaders, as with the case of Ms. Rogers, you have the situation of that person not being well prepared, not properly preparing their people and communicating with their people to do their jobs correctly.
Instead, She seeked the momentary limelight: refused to properly do her core duty, "get her ass in gear, hands dirty", pay attention and focus on the details and yet chose to be one of the "belle's of the ball"; use her WH insider connections/credentials, high level visibility and her "powerful friendship of the Obamas" to expand and benefit from her new found national celebrity.
What she should have been doing instead of primping, was quickly move/scurry around that function, expensive designer dress or not, with radio in hand, giving directions, ensuring that all her people were doing their jobs at all times.
And when, at some point, she has covered all her bases ansd her staff people have finished their initial duties, things have settled down somewhat and re-check once again to ensure proper compliance, THEN Ms. Rogers can begin to mingle with invited guests and continue to enjoy the party.
That is what proper management-on-the-ground is all about.
Everyone wants to solely blame the Secret Service and yes, they did make a mistake and it did cost them (3 SS personnel got fired) but don't put all the blame on the SS by saying "all they had to do was turn them away" without blaming Ms. Rogers and her lack of mamagement skills and attention to detail in performing this task.
And as for her professionalism? When the incident was investigated by a Congressional committee and when she was summoned to testify she refused and chose to hide behind her close relationship with the President & First Lady. BOTTOM LINE: at that very moment when the s_ _ t hit on fan, She KNEW that she f _ _ _ ed up and she allowed, on purpse, for the Secret Service to completely take the hit.
And she hoped that her good friends, the Obamas, would take care and cover of her.
None of her Social Secretary staff got fired, she did and not matter how she tries to spin this going forward back in Chicago or someone tries to coddle her/defend her actions, she knows in her heart & soul that she screwed up.
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By: U. D. on 2/28/2010 2:21PM
Maybe she will write a host a social event book. ;-)
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By: Bill Schrier on 2/28/2010 8:24PM
Yes, she was appointed in the first place for no other reason other than political cronyism. But that's true of innumberable other Obama aides. Obama has brought Chicago style corruption to the White House, no question about it. But that's no surprise to us non-blacks. This particular aide's incompetence is nothing compared to the fraud of Obama himself ... who is not a natural born citizen, faked his selective service card, and stole multiple identities over the years. If you think I'm making this stuff up, take a few minutes and investigate on google for yourself what the truth is about Obama. Stop just blindly accepting everything your black media feed to you, and start thinking for yourself.
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By: Phyllia on 3/01/2010 1:48AM
After 35 years in the workforce, a scenerio of this type uaual consists of the minority female being the target of so much ridiculing gossip that she has to quit in order to maintain her health. It's the Amarosa syndrome where just about everyone hates her for being strong and confident. There a lots of white people who equate blacks w/incompetentcy no matter how well they do their jobs. There are others who will make it their person goal to get them fired, just because they know they can. Racism is alive and well in America.Obama's administration is no different. If Rogers was white, or Van Jones even, they would still be employed.
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