Valerie Jarrett discusses Obama's Job Summit. She also defends the Obama White House's decision not to allow Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify on Capitol Hill.
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Will anyone else other than Secret Service Agents take the fall for "Party Crash Gate"?
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Desiree Rogers: Dinner gaffe puts spotlight on Obamas' Social Chief
Desiree Rogers described herself as "giddy with excitement" when she was picked as social secretary for the new Obama White House.
"This is the perfect combination of some of the skill sets that I have," she told the Tribune at the time. "I don't think it can get much better than this."
But a year and one gaffe-plagued state dinner later, it could be a lot better for Rogers. The former head of the Illinois Lottery and Peoples Gas now finds herself in the Washington political cross hairs after a security lapse that allowed gate-crashers into last week's White House gala for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Secret Service has assumed the lion's share of blame, but a key Republican is threatening to subpoena Rogers over questions of whether her office ignored protocol for such events and may have contributed to the breach. Partisanship aside, the incident has also focused an unwanted spotlight on Rogers, whose position is designed to raise the profile of the first family -- not their social secretary.
The 50-year-old Rogers, a friend of President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, has shown a flair for personal publicity in what tends to be a low-profile position. She has been featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair and boasted of the marketing potential of "the Obama brand."
That has raised eyebrows in Washington, the nation's center of power, cattiness and long knives, where some dismiss her as an imperious fashion plate.
Walter Scheib, the top chef at the executive mansion for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said that from his first day on the job it was made clear that top staffers were supposed to remain in the background.
"What has occurred is unfortunate on so many levels: the president, the first lady and our guests of state were in danger," Scheib said. "It's a fact. Folks who work at the White House, their one and only job is to guarantee the safety and be of service to the first family and the president."
Rogers, a one-time Republican once considered as running mate for former Gov. George Ryan, is no stranger to controversy or adversity.
Six years ago she survived a bout with breast cancer.
When Rogers was president of Peoples from 2004 to 2008, the utility was sued by the city and state for "massive fraud" linked to the Enron scandal that allegedly led to widespread customer overcharges. The scheme predated Rogers' term at the company's helm, but stonewalling of the investigation allegedly continued after she took over. Peoples agreed to a record $196 million in refunds.
On Thursday, the White House made it clear that it was standing by Rogers. She's "not curling up in a ball," said a White House official, terming it "unfortunate" that problems at the Singh dinner had overshadowed Rogers' success in arranging 170 parties and social events without a hitch. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Rogers has made herself available to the media largely to accommodate heavy interest in her role as the first African-American to be White House social secretary.
A similar message came from her ex-husband, Chicago financier and Obama fundraiser John Rogers Jr., who has spoken to her in recent days. "It's out of the question that she won't survive this," he said. "She's at the top of her game. She's busy with planning all the Christmas parties at the White House."
Divorced for a decade, Desiree and John Rogers have one daughter, a student at Yale University.
A native of New Orleans, Desiree Rogers came to Chicago by way of Wellesley College, a Harvard MBA and a job in operations at AT&T. After marrying John Rogers, founder of multibillion-dollar Ariel Capital Management, she managed newsstand operations for the Levy Corp. and ran a firm that operated museum retail stores.
Republicans are hardly known for their success with black voters, but Jim Edgar proved an exception when elected governor in 1990. He recruited minorities and women for top positions. And Rogers became Illinois' lottery director.
She had other GOP links as well. John Rogers' mother, Jewel LaFontant-Mankarious, was deputy solicitor general in the Nixon administration and an ambassador-at-large under President George H.W. Bush. In 1992, Desiree Rogers was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention.
At the lottery, Rogers earned a reputation as driven and self-confident. She launched new games and gained celebrity appearing often on television as the face of the lottery. In 1997, she joined Peoples Gas.
Rogers left Peoples last year, briefly working on a social networking initiative for Allstate Insurance before joining the Obama administration.
White House observers said it's rare for social secretaries to actually take a seat at a state dinner, as Rogers did. She posed for the cameras when entering the White House on the night of Nov. 24. "We are very excited," she said. "Everything looks great."
Sticklers for protocol said even her speaking in the first person -- rather than speaking for the Obamas -- was a faux pas.
Rogers, though, has won admirers. Hair stylist Ron Clemente remembers last spring when she came into a Georgetown salon where she has had her nails done, and gave employees tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll.
His take? "She is fabulous in every direction, very stylish without being overdone, very sophisticated without being overbearing. Approachable."
Friends And Colleagues Defend Desiree Rogers
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers came under attack after a Virginia couple crashed President Obama's first state dinner, but her friends and colleagues are fighting back.
People close to Rogers strongly dispute the emerging caricature of her as a spotlight-seeking diva who invited herself to the dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and skirted her responsibilities while she was there.
A source with knowledge of the evening's events tells the Huffington Post that, other than about five minutes "to pick at her salad," Rogers spent the entire evening coordinating and working the event. She was spotted and photographed in the rope line preceding the dinner, but the source said that was only after completing frantic, last-second planning for the high-profile affair.
Prepping all day on Tuesday, she changed into her outfit just 30 minutes before the state dinner started, the source added. And she was "shadowing" the president and first lady at a separate private reception for roughly 20 people shortly after arriving.
"What are the odds she was going to be lackadaisical at the biggest moment of her life?" the source asked. "Zero. That's why these stories don't make any sense. Her reputation is at stake."
The source spoke in defense of Rogers because the social secretary had been told not to speak to the press. "I think the way it is being characterize and the way it is coming off that she is too big a personality for the White House, it just doesn't make sense," the source said.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was peppered with questions about Rogers's performance and capacity for the job. One questioner asked whether there was concern within the administration that Rogers was too high-profile for the post. "What about the issues of her being in fashion spreads early on in the administration? Did you put the brakes on that?" Gibbs dismissed those questions.
Still, questions over how the Virginia couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, skirted security and reached the president unimpeded persist. And while Rogers may have been an active presence at the dinner, members of the press and lawmakers on the Hill are demanding more information about the role her office played in helping enforce security that evening.
Rogers has declined to testify before Congress about her role in planning the event and staffing officials at security locations. Gibbs cited the separation of powers and a history of White House staff not testifying before Congress for that decision.
Appearing on ABC News on Thursday, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of Rogers, concluded that the White House had now "answered the questions fully."
The White House has, since the snafu, implemented a new policy that would require that a White House staffer be dispatched to each entrance during such high-profiled affairs.
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Sources: Chicago Tribune, MSNBC, Politico, Huffington Post, Black Snob, Google Maps
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