"Crashgate" (or "Crashergate") may have been able to occur because Obama administration handled dinner differently than past administrations

Politico: "President Barack Obama says "the system didn't work the way it was supposed to" at last week's White House state dinner . . . "

From the NY Post:

Now Rogers, a friend of President Obama's family for decades and officially in charge of the first family's social lives, is skipping a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing into how reality-TV aspirants Tareq and Michaele Salahi waltzed into the gala.

Unlike at past state dinners, Rogers assigned no White House aides to vet guests before they went through security. Just as unusual, she was named as an invited guest rather than a staffer.
"I never sat down at a state dinner because I was always too busy taking care of what needed to be taken care of," Maria Downs, social secretary during President Gerald Ford's administration, told The Post.
"You are there all through the dinner, mingling with the guests, taking care of their needs, but you weren't a guest." . . .

The Obama administration seems to want to play up the problem with the Secret Service, but once the attention turns to long time Obama friend and social secretary Desiree Rogers, the investigation must stop.

If White House social secretary Desiree Rogers survives this week's withering attacks for her role in last week's state dinner security breach, she'll have gotten by with a lot of help from her friends in the West Wing.

As a House committee opened hearings Thursday on how two uninvited partygoers were able to enter the White House grounds and shake hands with President Barack Obama, top presidential aides delivered a clear message to critics of this favored staffer: Back off.

In a White House not known for its tolerance of staffing errors, Rogers has been the beneficiary of an unprecedented show of support from senior administration officials. A former corporate executive from Chicago, Rogers has known the Obamas for more than a decade and seems blessed with a status that may shield her from the fate of departing White House counsel Greg Craig or Louis Caldera, the Military Office head who was canned for a botched Air Force One photo op. . . .

UPDATE: White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers regularly let gate crashers into WH events.

When asked what she does with event crashers, Rogers replied (to much laughter), that she's begun adding an extra table, row, or bench to every event she produces, as each time she found extra people would show up in hopes of gaining entrance. "Lots of people just come anyways, they won't take no for an answer," she said. "Finally I just said, 'Alright, come on in, it's no use kicking you out.'" . . .