Lawmakers to hold hearing on party crashers

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC/AP

House panel calls Secret Service director, Salahi couple to testify Thursday

WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security committee is calling the Secret Service director and the couple who crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner to testify on the incident Thursday.

Mississippi's Bennie Thompson says he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed Michaele and Tareq Salahi into the Nov. 24 White House dinner even though they were not on the guest list. Thompson says now is a time for answers and not political games or scapegoating.

Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has yet to do so. The Secret Service could not immediately be reached for comment.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34206787/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

[JDPriestly]

1. This will take the wind out of the couple's sails since they will not be

able to charge the media for information that Congress requires them to provide under oath.

[marshall]

14. This is going to turn them into media celebs

Bravo is going to be raking in the viewers for the next "Housewives of...." and you can bet this fiasco is going to be front and center. All the powers that be need to watch what they say and not speak out against this couple until they determine positively one way or the other what happened. At this point anyone's head could roll.

[shotten99]

2. Bullshit. Where were the Jeff Gannon hearings?

[tanyev]

3. Oh, I bet Mr. 8" Cut was on somebody's guest list.

So technically not a crasher.

[truthisfreedom]

4. When you're the president's butt-buddy, you're always on the list.

[jefferson_dem]

5. Congress calls for party crashers to testify

Source: CNN

Congress calls for party crashers to testify
Posted: December 1st, 2009 06:23 AM ET



From CNN's Lauren Kornreich

Congress calls for party crashers to testify.

Washington (CNN) - The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee called Monday for the couple who crashed President Obama's state dinner last week and the head of Secret Service to testify at a Thursday hearing on the security breakdown at the White House event.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, announced that he wants to hear Tareq and Michaele Salahi, and Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, explain how the couple was able to get inside the White House and shake hands with President Obama without being on the guest list.

"This is a time for answers, recognition of security deficiencies past and present, and remedies to ensure the strength of the Secret Service and the safety of those under its protection," Thompson said in a statement. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission. My confidence in the management of the Secret Service hangs in the balance." He called the incident a "slap in the face" to other Secret Service employees.

Internal investigations have indicated that the Secret Service didn't follow protocol at at least one security checkpoint.

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/01/congress-calls-for-party-crashers-to-testify-3/

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. More publicity. Just what these people want

[Pab Sungenis]

7. I'd like a serious investigation.

This isn't the first time the Secret Service has been lax in protecting Obama. It started with that incident in February 2008 when they ordered Dallas police to not screen for weapons, then continued on to them letting armed teabaggers around sites where he was speaking (including at least one wearing the same T-Shirt as Timothy McVeigh), and now this.

I would not be surprised to find that someone in the upper echelons of the Secret Service would prefer to see Obama dead.

[katkat]

8. yes, the Secret Service has been noticeably lax

And its record of racism in personnel matters hardly inspires confidence.

[hexola]

9. Did you see them on the TODAY show this AM?

Ok - was it just me?

I SWEAR the guy had some sort of accent when the interview started...that seemed to vanish into "typical american" after one or two questions???

Did anyone else catch that...? I have to see the replay to confirm.

[jefferson_dem]

10. I saw it. They are a shifty, smarmy couple who deserve to be smacked down in a big way...

n/t

[Carni]

11. I know people who have encountered the Salahis

They apparently run around the town of Front Royal VA and the surrounding area claiming to be French and speaking French to each other -- a lot of the local people THINK they are French.

His family is of Palestinian origin according to Wiki and I have no idea where she supposedly hails from.

Those two are a real piece of work...I am sure the accent is a total put on!

[Javaman]

13. Con artists usually have nothing to offer other than bullshit.

they are the talentless refuge at the bottom of the gene pool.

[cbdo2007]

12. This all sounds like another set-up to embarrass Obama, like the plane photo op over NY.

There is someone on the inside trying to sabotage Obama with these embarrassing PR mistakes.

Let's say someone really DID get past Secret Service and "snuck" into a White House event. Why on Earth would that make that information public??? With pictures and everything? No one needs to know if this actually happens but the Secret Service would need to fix their procedures.

That isn't what happened in this case. Within a day of it happening it was all over the news. The next day are pictures. This is all another set-up by someone in Obama's camp to make him look bad.

[Lorien]

15. Oy. Another absurd distraction

the media and the House can't seem to get enough of them.