Partisan politics at the state dinner party
Reuters’ Wendell Marsh was there as the guests arrived for President Obama’s state dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The evening might have been filled with glamour, but it did take place in Washington, so it was naturally marked by a few comments on partisan politics.
Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry told members of the media that it was time to tone down recent heated political rhetoric. “You can’t come here with a scorched earth policy and expect to do the nation’s business and serve our greater interest.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, waxed diplomatic. “It’s a great night for our country,” he said as he walked in.” We are Americans and we are honored to be here.”
But he was aware that he was one of only a few Republicans to accept the invitation from the Democratic White House.
“It just makes me unique once again,” he told reporters.
Some Republican notables were most notable for their absence.
Hu’s state dinner menu as American as apple pie – corrected
The White House usually pays tribute to its state dinner guests by planning menus that pay homage to the visitors’ country. But the Chinese delegation wanted an American experience — which they are getting in spades on Monday Wednesday night.
The state dinner menu features Maine lobster, steak and potatoes and apple pie with vanilla ice cream, accompanied by an array of U.S. wines. And the entertainment is “An Evening of Jazz,” the uniquely American musical form.
Here is the menu:
- D’Anjou Pear salad with Farmstead Goat Cheese, fennel, black walnuts and white balsamic vinegar
- Poached Maine lobster with orange glaze carrots and black trumpet mushrooms, served with a Dumol Chardonnay “Russian River” 2008
- Lemon Sorbet
- Dry-aged rib eye with buttermilk crisp onions, double-stuffed potatoes and creamed spinach, accompanied by Quilceda Creek Cabernet “Columbia Valley” 2005
- Old-fashioned apple pie with vanilla ice cream, served with Poet’s Leap Riesling “Botrytis” 2008
The two previous state dinners hosted by the White House have taken place in tents erected on the building’s lawn, but Wednesday night’s was held entirely inside, with tables erected in the Blue Room, Red Room and State Dining Room for dinner, and the evening’s enertainment in the East Room.
The design theme also reflected the “Quintessentially American” theme. The dinner linens featured pheasants on patterned backgrounds in jewel tones, reminiscent of the work of the American naturalist artist John James Audobon. But the design was also a bow to China — the pheasant, the White House pointed out, is a native bird of China, revered for its beauty and seen as a symbol of nobility.
Inquisition begins over state dinner gatecrashing
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan looked like he was having a bad day as he sat facing a firing squad of lawmakers determined to find out how the vaunted Secret Service could allow uninvited guests into the White House and even into a receiving line to shake hands with President Barack Obama.
“I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times over this past week,” Sullivan told the House Homeland Security Committee when asked how Tareq and Michaele Salahi were allowed to talk their way into the White House for last week’s state dinner although they were not on the guest list.
“Do I like to see this? Believe me, we are beating ourselves up over this,” said Sullivan, who looked like he could use a good night’s sleep and seemed to have a 5 o’clock shadow even at 10 a.m.
Sullivan said he had put three Secret Services officers on paid leave for their role in letting the Virginia couple into the state dinner held in honor of the Indian prime minister.
Sullivan’s agency has been the brunt of criticism after the Salahis talked their way into the White House and managed to pose with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others including the Marines guarding the White House.
Many members of the committee urged Sullivan — the sole witness at the hearing after Social Secretary Desiree Rogers and the Salahis refused to testify — to share out some of the blame. One after another, the lawmakers questioned why no one from the White House Social Office was helping to staff the checkpoints to verify guests’ identities as they arrived at last Tuesday’s state dinner.
But the Secret Service director held strong to his acceptance of responsibility. His only waver was when he grudgingly admitted “it would have helped” stop the Salahis from entering if a White House staffer had been present when the couple went through the checkpoint.
This must be the umpteenth article about party crashers at the white house. Here are some topics for Reuters contributors to investigate and report back to the public about.
Health care:100,000 pharmaceutical deaths a year, 100,000 surgical blunders a year causing death. 45,000 deaths each year because of a lack of health care insurance.
War on Terror:Guantanamo is still open. Three detainees found bound, gagged and hanged at same time and ruled a suicide. President Obama has declared Bhagram Prison in Afghanistan the new Guantanamo. No lawyers, family or red cross can visit indefinitely. Eighty percent of all terror detainees are delivered to the military by bounty hunters. Very few have been eye witness identified by any U.S. forces.
White House defends social secretary in gate-crasher flap, couple declines to testify
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today defended the White House social secretary, Desiree Rogers, in the controversy surrounding how a Virginia couple managed to wangle their way into President Barack Obama’s state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week.
It has been noted in news accounts that no one from the social secretary’s office was at the gate helping the Secret Service identify guests and making sure people not on the list did not get inside.
Gibbs noted that for the crush of holiday parties that have just begun at the White House, procedures have been changed to ensure someone from the social office is at the gate.
The White House sent over a memo outlining the new procedures.
But Gibbs rallied around Rogers, who is the subject today of a one-two punch of fairly critical stories — a column by the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd and a Style section piece by Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan.
Both of them note that Rogers was a guest at the event instead of paying all her attention to making sure things ran smoothly at the Obamas’ first state dinner.
Gibbs was peppered by questions about this from April Ryan of American Urban Radio.
Those party crashers deserve a medal for showing up a weakness in the WH protocols!!!!Perhaps there was a reluctance on someones part becos of Political correctness?
