Orange County Register

Rep. Ed Royce and the State Dinner crasher

Rep. Ed Royce is one of the notables who got their pictures taken at Tuesday night’s White House State Dinner with a woman who crashed the party.

That’s right. The leader of the free world who has snipers on the roof of his home and security everywhere had his first State Dinner infiltrated by a Virginia couple that the Associated Press described as being well known in the “horse set.” Click here to read the whole AP story.

Royce wasn’t the only legitimate guest who had his picture taken with the dinner crashers. So did Vice President Joe Biden, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and CBS news anchor Katie Couric.

UPDATE: Royce took time out from Thanksgiving to call and tell me about his encounter with the crashers.

Royce said he was talking with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal when this woman he didn’t know came up to him and her escort took the picture. Lots of folks were snapping pictures, he said, and he didn’t think anything of it.

“You assume that the other people around you have actually been invited,” Royce said. The first he knew anything was amiss was when he turned on CNN and saw his picture on the screen with her.

Secret Service officials told the AP they are checking their security procedures - ya think. But they also assured them that the president was never in any danger because this couple went through all the magnetometers and other security procedures that all the other guests did. The presense of Michaele and Tareq Salahi was first reported by the Washington Post , which said the Michaele is reported to be in contention for the D.C. version of Real Housewives.

 I’ve asked Royce’s staff to see how the Fullerton Republican came to have his photo taken with Michaele Salahi.

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