W.H. Social Secretary Snubs Congress, Blabs at Bar
The White House party crashers debacle apparently hasn't ruffled Desiree Rogers feathers or slowed her stride. About 9:00pm Friday night a friend and I dropped by the Ritz Carlton hotel bar at 22nd and M Street for a drink and spotted the infamous Social Secretary seated at a corner table with a girlfriend engaged in animated conversation. We parked ourselves at a table across from hers and put our hearing into high gear. Desiree and her friend were sharing a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, an expensive French champagne and to our surprise didn't seem to care if people could overhear their conversation. (Not exactly the discretion one would expect from the White House Social Secretary who's been in the media hot seat all week.)
Around 10:00pm a young man, who looked about 22 and had been sitting at the bar within earshot of the two, approached Rogers and engaged her in conversation about, you guessed it, Crashergate. I over-heard Rogers say "I think we are pushing the envelope on what that job means." My friend and I raised an eyebrow or two and couldn't believe what we were witnessing. Rogers was talking very publically about an event about which she refused to testify about before Congress. My friend overheard her tell him it was more important for her "to experience the experience of the guests at the event," which is why she sat at a table. But she was too absorbed in the guest experience to notice the Salahis had crashed their way into the White House state dinner to join the 400 invited guests.
When the young man exited the bar, I followed him out and asked him about his talk with Desiree. He said he went up to speak to her because he was from Chicago and his parents worked for CBS and ABC News. He also said he overheard her talking about the crashers with her friend and she "was clearly agitated about it."
He added Desiree "was pretty blasé" about the whole incident and didn't appear to be worried about it at all. He said "she's obviously insulated from the whole thing and clearly her job is protected." He told me she reiterated she's trying to push the envelope on what the job [social secretary] means. As we ended our brief chat, he told me he had attended events like the state dinner and thought nothing was wrong with her sitting down.
When I returned to the bar, Rogers and her friend were preparing to leave. As Rogers gathered her purse, she exclaimed to her friend, "my house is a mess!" It sure is and the best way to start cleaning it up is to stop being the center of attention.