A Crash is not always a Crash

There has been a lot of coverage lately about the Tiger Woods accident and the so-called "gatecrashers" or "party crashers". Tareq and Michaele Salahi did what was previously thought impossible and unthinkable. They "crashed" a White House party.

Or did they?

Now why is this even such news? Why is there so much talk about it? Why do you even have some Senators and Representatives calling for criminal charges?

Look at it this way. No matter what you feel about Barack Obama...no matter if you agree or disagree with his politics and policies, that is not the issue.

The issue was the unauthorized access to the Office of the President of the United States of America. This was a major security breach at best. And if the Salahi were bent on doing some damage, they could of easily carried out such an attack on the President, his guest and the White House itself.

The Secret Service had a major lapse in security and I don't care who you are, you cannot blame the Salahi's for this. All they did was show up.

So what if they lied. Did they have the credentials and clearances to enter the party? From what everyone involved is saying, they did not. So even if the couple said they had an invite, if there name was not on the list and they had no written invitation then how did they get in?

To blame the Salahi's is ignorant at best and just plain passing the buck at worst. The lapse was on the Secret Service and the White House staff.

The other issue is, the Salahi's have been spotted in a picture with then Senator Barack Obama back in 2005 leading some to think that the president knew the Salahi's if even in passing. In other words, they were not total strangers to the president.

If this is true, and by the pictures it is true, then it it possible that some White House staffer recognized the couple and gave them the green light to enter the party.

In any event, this was a breakdown of communication and security and it put the Office of the Presidency at risk which is inexcusable. It also showed that if someone really wants to get at our president, that it is totally possible, which is unacceptable.

If the White House were smart, they would just say that the president knows the couple from events when he was a senator and that indeed were or should have been invited. Then quietly investigated how the breach of security happened and taken care of it.

Instead, we have opened a Pandora's box and now the whole world knows just how vulnerable our leader actually is.

Then again, this could be a stern warning to our president that his enemies be they domestic or foreign, are sending a message, "Barack we can get at you anytime we want."

Now that indeed, is a sobering thought.