WH Social Secretary Broke Protocol

Her dress was perfect. Her protocol was anything but.

Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, thought she was the belle of the ball at last week's state dinner -- gussied up in a spectacular Comme des Garçons gown and seating herself as if she were an honored guest.

It would have been a perfect affair for the woman in charge of the whole shebang had it not been for two publicity-hungry social climbers who crashed the party and put new focus on her own attention-seeking ways.

Now Rogers, a friend of President Obama's family for decades and officially in charge of the first family's social lives, is skipping a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing into how reality-TV aspirants Tareq and Michaele Salahi waltzed into the gala.