The White House Party Crashers

I've been to the White House for social functions.

Getting an invitation to the White House is the most exciting piece of mail you can receive. After blocking out the date and calling your family to brag, you sit and basque in the honor. It's easier for us guys- we know we are wearing a tux. For women it's more of a fashion quandry. Then there is the transportation question: are there parking lots near the White House? Should we take a cab?

But one thing that is systematic: follow the instructions. Bring the invitation, enter through the correct and specified gate at the specified time and have government issued identification,

The very first checkpoint is a White House staffer with uniformed police officers who ask to see your invitation. This is a quickie step- it weeds out those who were invited from those who were not. FAILURE #1.

The second check point is 2 or 3 staffers with headsets (who ask for your invitation again) with uniformed secret service that check your ID. Once cleared, your names is crossed off the list and the staffers radio ahead to the master list announcing your arrival. This keeps the Master List accurate. FAILURE #2.

Now comes the job of the Secret Service though at this stage they are still uniformed and not the guys we think of with earpieces and sunglasses. They check you through the magnotometers, pat you down, open your purse, etc. It is not their job to check if you are on the list. They check that you have no weapons and pose no threat. It is the White House's job to keep the guest list. CHECK!

Last check point- you enter the White House and the social secretary's staff greets you (they are expecting you- remember their colleagues radioed ahead when you arrived). They confirm your names and the table where you are seated. Then you are announced to the press corp waiting in the lobby who snaps your photo and loggs your name. FAILURE #3.

That is how, at least under the Bush Administration, you got into the White House.

It makes me mad that the Obama White House is throwing Secret Service Agents under the bus when they are clearly not at fault. It is the responsibility of the White House, usually the social secretary's office, to do this. But because some 22 year old former Obama campaign aid didn't do his job and check the list, because at no other checkpoints was the White House present... a gate crashing couple got through. And now, some well trained, exceptionally talented secret service men and women are going to get canned.

White House detail- Presidential detail- it the pinnacle of the Secret Service. And the Obama Administration begins the defenestration of the Secret Service rather than admit their own blame. Or worse: incompetence.