Opinion: White House gatecrashers? So yesterday

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The Salahis have gotten a lot of ink. White House social secretary Desiree Rogers has taken a lot of grief. Ditto the Secret Service, which assumed responsibility for the security breach that allowed the couple without an invitation into President Obama‘s first state dinner. And ‘Saturday Night Live’ has weighed in with its usual hilarious reprise on the week’s news events.

Now comes this intriguing tidbit: it turns out that crashing the gates of the White House is a time-honored temptation for the truly celebrity-obsessed, dating back to the days of Jimmy Carter.

A secret 2003 report obtained by the Washington Post, along with descriptions of more recent incidents by federal homeland security officials, ‘places Tareq and Michaele Salahi squarely in a rogues’ gallery of autograph hounds, publicity seekers, unstable personalities and others identified by the Secret Service as defeating its checkpoints at least 91 times since 1980.’

-- Johanna Neuman

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