Social climbers

If you've seen the story about White House party-crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi, you've probably already seen this picture of the couple with VP Joe Biden. It's usually the one that accompanies the story. But the overreaching Washington socialites have a joint Facebook page (how weird is that?) with many more pictures from their illicit night at the White House.


Not satisfied to be seen schmoozing with the veep, they skipped right over his boss and went straight to the top for this picture with Rahm Emanuel, the real top dog in the White House.


Oh, wait...did I say Rahm Emanuel? Sorry. It was apparently some look-alike named Ron Emanuel. My bad.


Michaele's such an important figure, a few good men took time out from their duties to personally welcome her. Or so her Facebook page would have you believe.


Women of real substance and import have to stick together, you know. And a trend emerges...what does the right side of Michaele's face look like?

Later in the evening, Michaele and Joe got cozy.

The story was at first interesting only from a security perspective - how did two uninvited guests manage to crash a state dinner at the White House? - and I'm sure that between this episode and Biden's recent motorcade demolition derby, some folks over at the Secret Service are sweating bullets. But it keeps getting weirder.

Today's reports are that Michaele was being considered for an upcoming reality TV show "Housewives of Washington" on the Bravo channel and was followed around by a film crew all day while preparing for her big night out. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear about someone trying to get on a reality show, my immediate thought is "publicity whore".

As for their motivation for crashing this particular event, there's a clue on their Facebook page:

The America's Polo Cup & the United States Polo Team is looking forward to welcoming India in 2010 in the world championship polo matches on the DC National Mall

The Salahis are active in polo events and their Facebook page lists the Americas Polo Club as one of their employers. Wouldn't hurt to schmooze with some official representatives of India in advance of this event.

And what is wrong with Michaele's right side?

Update: I was looking for an article that gave the ages of these two, because one I saw yesterday (and can't find now) said that Tareq's age is variously given as 39 or 41. Sorry, folks, but I'm turning 50 next month, and there's no way I'm 8 or 10 years older than this guy. But CNN has this piece detailing some of their legal woes.