White House Party Crashers Show Holes in US Security

Tuesday night a Washington D.C. couple crashed President Barack Obama's first state dinner. In the world of party-crashing, this has to rank up there as one of the most difficult parties to crash. Afterall, to get in you have to get past the Secret Service and we know how fickle they are about letting strangers get up close and personal with the President and his staff... or do we?

Michaele and Tareq Salahi, infamous D.C. socialiates and aspiring reality show stars, were not on the official White House guest list for last night's state dinner honoring the Indian Prime Minister, but they were at the party anyways. The Washington Post reports that the Salahi's slipped through a Secret Service checkpoint "which did not follow proper procedure to ensure these two individuals were on the invited guest list."

The Secret Service told the Post that the couple didn't pose any risk. Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said:

"Everyone who enters the White House grounds goes through magnetometers and several other levels of screenings. That was the case with the state dinner last night. No one was under any risk or threat."

Obviously expert party crashers, the Salahis worked the event like pros - chatting up and getting photographed with celebrities and politicians. Later, Michaele even uploaded the photos to her Facebook account, along with the Facebook status of:

"Honored to have attended the state dinner at the White House in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady."

So just who are the Salahis? Michaele is a rumored contender for the upcoming DC edition of Bravo's "Real Housewives" reality series, and defines her style as "classic and feminine with a slim rocker edge." She is "addicted to white clothes" and loves stilettos. Tareq is a polo enthusiast and founded "America's Polo Cup", and he is also involved in a complex lawsuit over a family winery.

The Salahis managed to cozy up to Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and they've got picture proof. Regardless of whether the Salahis were a threat or not, the fact that they were able to get into such an important event and that close to the nation's highest leaders without getting caught by the Secret Service charged with protecting the President and his staff shows that there are some serious holes in our nation's security. If they can't stop two socialites from crashing a party and schmoozing the President's men, how can we expect them to protect the rest of the country from larger, more serious threats?