It’s not as if Desiree Rogers got the job as White House Social Secretary because she was the best social secretary in the land and ready for the nation’s top job. The former People's Gas president and Obama fundraiser was a patronage hire!
And now the Chicago glamour girl is under fire in the saga of alleged White House gate-crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi. Rogers has been asked to testify on Thursday before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.
Desiree Rogers, our last line of defense! This must be a first. Move the color code to orange.
To be fair, Rogers may turn out to be innocent of incompetence.
And just because she couldn't get her meter-readers trained up and her billing department was a mess doesn't mean she can't schedule galas.
Critics, however (yes, the White House Social Secretary has critics) have seized upon the apparent failure of Rogers to have someone from her office posted at the first White House checkpoint for the now infamous state dinner, as has been the practice in the past.
In fact, for years that person had been a woman named Cathy Hargraves - until Rogers told her last February that her services greeting guests would no longer be needed. Oops!
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"We don't feel we have a need for that anymore." Rogers told Hargraves, according to the account Hargraves gave Newsweek. "In these economic times, I don't think we're going to have very many lavish expensive dinners. It wouldn't look very good."
Especially when you show up wearing this.
At any rate, Hargraves says the Salahis never would have gotten by her.
Rogers is also under fire for inviting herself to the party.
"In the past, White House social secretaries have worked, not partied, on the nights of major events, racing around to make sure everything is going according to plan," the Daily Beast reports.
But that's not Rogers' style. She likes to be seen. (Trench by Viktor & Rolf; earrings by Cartier.)
And while Rogers hasn't said whether she'll appear before the committee on Thursday - she is invited but hasn't been subpoeanaed - you can bet that if she does, all of official Washington will be watching.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
