Michaele & Tareq Salahi's 15 Minutes of Whatever

How have I gone all this time without doing a post about this Virginia couple's 15 minutes of fame.

Yes, I'm talking about Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia couple who allegedly crashed the state dinner to honor the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. And they both looked pretty stunning. She wore a gorgeous red and gold lehenga, and he was quite dashing in his formal black tie get up. They totally looked like they belonged there.

They managed to work their way past the Secret Service and rub elbows with bunches of people in high places who'd actually been invited to the event.

They attended the cocktail reception and had photos taken with President Obama, Vice President Biden, our very cool mayor, Adrian Fenty and his wife Michelle, Katie Couric and some other famous Americans. Then, after making their way into the tent where the sit down dinner was about to be served (and where, of course, there were no seats for them), they discretely left.

When you do something like this and get caught, every tacky thing you've ever done in your entire life comes to light.

• Michaele reportedly ticked off Donald Trump by falsely claiming to be a former Miss USA.
• When the Tariq’s got married, the woman who owns the shop where she bought her beautiful designer wedding gown alleges she got stiffed by the couple.
• The Washington Post reported that Michaele started to practice her party crashing skills a couple of months ago when she showed up at a gathering of ex-Redskinettes, the cheerleaders who root the home team on and perform at half time. She was busted when she was unable to do even the most basic cheering routines, and someone checked her credentials. Oops.
• Someone in Maryland is suing them over an alleged $13,000 bounced check for booze they served at a Montgomery County polo match. They are really into polo.
  
• They allegedly tried to stiff their gardener, who took them to court in Virginia. Tareq had to turn over his Patek Phillipe watch to settle the debt. Hope it was real and not a knock off.

Since the incident, there have been big time inquiries about how they could have breezed their way past the Secret Service - the White House's formidable gate keepers. But there was one invitation they declined. The couple did not appear, as requested, at a Congressional investigation. And there are questions about whether or not they actually did anything illegal.

As this goofy tale of chutzpa plays itself out, I do hope the White House and Secret Service work things out so our president is really protected. The Salahis might have done us all a favor by showing how much we need to tighten up access.