Congress Will Hold Hearings on White House Party Crashers

It's all fun and games until the Secret Service gets involved. That's the message from Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, who announced Monday that he will hold a hearing to investigate last week's White House security breach during the state dinner honoring the prime minister of India.

Michaele and Tareq Salahi, a northern Virginia couple who are auditioning for Bravo's "The Real Housewives of D.C.," were admitted to the dinner by Secret Service agents and were later photographed with the president and vice president, despite having no invitation to the event.

Thompson will call Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, as well as the Salahis, to testify at the Thursday hearing, which will examine the security procedures in place for the dinner, as well as the agency's changes to those procedures since Tuesday's lapse.

"The intent of this administration may be openness and transparency, but a security breakdown that allowed anyone who looked the part to walk off the street into a state dinner is a slap in the face to the Secret Service employees who put their lives on the line to protect our form of government and its leaders," said Thompson.

Thompson will have bipartisan support on Thursday from Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the top Republican on the committee, who said on NBC's "Today" show Monday that Congress should investigate the incident "to find out exactly what the Secret Service is doing to make sure this never happens again." King added, "We can't show this type of weakness to terrorists, to psychopaths."

Thompson and King are among a growing number of members of Congress who want answers about last week's incident, which started as a gossip column headline but revealed critical security lapses at the executive mansion.

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Friday that he wants a review of the entire Secret Service, while Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday": "It's not a laughing matter that people could get that close to the president. You've got to send a strong deterrent that people just don't do this kind of thing."

The investigation into the security procedures comes at the beginning of the holiday season, typically the busiest time of the year for White House entertaining, when thousands of (invited) guests attend lunches, receptions and dinners at the invitation of the administration or the Obama family.