Officers Suspended in Wake of WH Crashing
The Secret Service Takes the Blame for Allowing Unauthorized Guests into the White House State Dinner
'Obama brand:' Rogers, social CEO

by Mark Silva

Desiree Rogers came to Washington touting "the Obama brand.''

Now it's Rogers' brand of social management that some are questioning, with the White House Social Secretary at the center of congressional subpoena talk that in past times has been reserved for the likes of political architects such as Karl Rove.

Rogers always has been known for getting things just right, our friends at Bloomberg News note: "Her condominium in Chicago's upscale Gold Coast neighborhood was filled with Valerie Jarrett's favorite foods and flowers when she threw a birthday party for the incoming senior presidential adviser 10 days after Barack Obama's election,'' John McCormick and Kate Andersen Brower write.

So it's little wonder that Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president and close friend of Rogers, was standing up for her outside the White House today.

Yet, McCormick and colleague note, "in the first state dinner Rogers hosted as a White House social secretary, it is two Virginia residents accused of party crashing most remembered, instead of the arugula salad with onionseed vinaigrette or the pumpkin pie tart.

"This is not the story they hoped would endure after the state dinner," Dee Dee Myers, who served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton says. {It's not the kind of thing you expect to happen, "But in some ways you should anticipate potential problems like this."

The failure of Rogers's office to prevent the security breach of Tareq and Michaele Salahi making their way into the State Dinner held for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became a focus of questioning at the Homeland Security Committee today. The Secret Service Director, Mark Sullivan, accepted full blame for the breach.

Now leading members of the committee want to subpoena Rogers and aren't impressed with the White House's resistance: "I could accept their argument if this was any policy, but this is involves an administrative act by an appointee of the president,'' Rep. Peter King of New York, ranking Republican on the committee, said today.

"There's a pretty long history of ensuring White House staff can provide advice to the president and do so confidentially," Robert Gibbs, W.H. press secretary, said of the privilege that the White House is citing. -- a privilege, he noted, that has been forfeited for matters as grave as Watergate, Whitewater and 9/11, but not for a social receiving line. "I don't think even Peter King would have the audacity'' to put this case in that "trifecta.''

So it hasn't taken long for the Obama White House to be fending off congressional subpoena talk -- the stuff that the investigation of the Bush White House's firing of U.S. attorneys was made of -- over a not-so-simple dinner.

The Washington Post already has raised the Rogers question most pointedly, in a piece penned by the very reporter who was asking Rogers about the gown that she was wearing at the dinner. "Are you wearing Comme Des Garcons?" the Post asked.

"Of course," Rogers replied.

More attention to stitches than guests?

"Back when the president's polling numbers were higher, Rogers, who is known for her love of designer dresses and jazz, told the Wall Street Journal's magazine that the White House was filled with marketing possibilities,'' the Bloomberg team writes. She bragged: "We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand.''

Now it's the Rogers brand of management that's in question. Rogers declined to comment through a spokeswoman for First Lady Michelle Obama. But a longtime friend in Chicago, Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, suggested that the criticism "isn't fair.. I have never seen her be sloppy, ever."

Kathleen Hennessey and Christi Parsons contributed.

(Just right: Rogers is pictured above at a luau held for members of Congress and their families on the South Lawn of the White House June 25, in a celebration of the president's home state, The South Lawn was decorated with tiki torches and palm huts and the meal prepared by Hawaiian chef Alan Wong. Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images.)

With Eye On Second Term, Bernanke Defends Record

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke got tough questioning from the Senate Banking Committee on the failures of the Fed leading up to the financial crisis and on the role in played in the bailout of Wall Street firms. While Bernanke is ultimately expected to be reconfirmed, the hearing may influence the Fed's future role in an overhauled financial system.