Dina Titus: ‘Just a new level of audacity’

By Lisa Mascaro

Friday, Dec. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas is a capital for both parties and party crashers. Entire industries have sprung up on the Strip devoted to the partnership of swanky party places and those who control access beyond the velvet rope.

So when Rep. Dina Titus took her seat Thursday at the Homeland Security Committee hearing on the White House party crashers, she had a few things to say about the case of Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the Virginia couple who slipped into the Obama administration’s first state dinner uninvited.

The Salahis skipped the committee hearing, respectfully declining the invitation to tell how they did what others attempt each night in clubs around the Strip. The White House social secretary also was a no-show, leaving only the head of the Secret Service to tell his side of the story.

But the absence of key players did not dissuade the House panel. One by one, members hurled outrage at the reality-TV-show-wannabes bluffing their way to a handshake with the leader of the free world.

“I’ve never seen this,” said an exasperated Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat.

Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of California called it a “royal screw-up.”

Titus, unlike some other people we now know all too well, is not a line-cutter. She waited her turn to speak. As a new member of the committee, she was among the last.

As the cameras rolled, so did the zingers. It was not lost on the committee that the Obamas were hosting the prime minister of India, whose country had recently been the target of a devastating terrorist attack. That President Barack Obama faces risks himself was clear.

Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama decried the “scary scenario.”

Lawmakers pushed the head of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, to finger the culprit.

“Human error,” he said. “Protocol was not adhered to.”

Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat who has made a career in national security, suggested the Secret Service might need better technology, noting bar-coded tickets at the recent Bruce Springsteen concert in Washington provided orderly crowd flow.

“I am not suggesting that Christmas at the White House is a Bruce Springsteen concert,” she said. “But I am suggesting there may be more modern techniques.”

The minutes turned into an hour. The panel took a break. Titus had another appointment. She would have to forfeit her turn.

Later, the congresswoman explained what was on her mind.

The security breach, she said, “draws our attention to just a new level of audacity.”

“Even though these people might not have been an immediate threat to the president, their experience highlights what now are possible threats to the White House,” she said.

“People will dress up, go in hot air balloons,” she said, referring to those other aspiring reality TV subjects recently in the news — the balloon boy’s family. “There’s no limit.”

Titus has been nudging the Homeland Security Committee to take a field trip to Las Vegas, to see how casino security forces handle the hangers-on. The committee is considering a trip.

“Maybe the Secret Service, as it revamps its training, has something it could learn from the very, very good private security we have in Nevada,” Titus said.

Asked about her personal thoughts on the Salahis’ escapade, Titus, who is originally from the South, a place where manners matter, said: “That was pretty bold and tacky.”