There is a Club, Episode 453

File under: "That's Desiree!" (™ Beachwood Reporter)

Today in Desiree News we find:

Desiree Rogers to help plan Emanuel’s inauguration
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, who was forced out after an infamous gate-crashing incident, will help plan Rahm Emanuel’s May 16 inauguration as Chicago’s new mayor.
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For those who do not recall, here is Mayor-elect Rahm standing cheek-by-jowl with the end result of Desiree's previous failure to work the door and not the room:

From the Chicago Tribune:

State dinner crashers spur White House security probe
Couple had been trying to land spot on 'Real Housewives' TV show

By Jim Tankersley Tribune Newspapers

WASHINGTON - -- The Secret Service has launched a "comprehensive investigation" of its security measures after two aspiring reality-TV stars crashed President Barack Obama's state dinner at the White House this week.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who have been auditioning to appear on the Bravo reality show "Real Housewives of D.C.," managed to stroll into the dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and mingle with the power people of Washington even though they weren't on the invitation list.

An administration official said the gate-crashing incident was apparently a breakdown in Secret Service screening and not the work of the White House social office.

White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, asked by The Associated Press on Thursday whether personnel from her office were at the checkpoint, said, "We were not."

The White House had requested an investigation, but the Secret Service had already begun one after discovering the incident.
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In my world, spectacularly cratering something this splashy and sensitive under the scrutiny of world media would be an Extinction Level Event, with its date forever after known noted on your calendar as the Day Your Career Ended (hell, in my world you can wildly exceed every expectation until, one day, the organization needs some layoff chum, at which point you vanish from the world of light and must wear a scarlet "L" forever afterward so that everyone knows you are unclean ("Unemployed Need Not Apply").)

At best, if you blow it big you first have to pile up every stitch you were wearing so you can burn all your Loser Clothes, and then go and Lord Jim it in the wilderness for years and years until you save an alderman's kitten or something and are welcomed back, all rehabilitated and grateful.

At worse, you end up living in a tomb with your creepy ex-husband/director watching your old films and bitching about Talkies until the Bad Thing happens

and a savage God lets you back into the limelight one more time.

Either way, in the Real World of caprice, insiderism and casual corporate malice where tens of millions of American workers cling to what is left of their futures by their fingernails, fucking up this badly would never end well.

But semi-divine naiads like Desiree do not live in that world...

Desiree Rogers split on her future
April 30, 2010|By Melissa Harris | CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL

Desiree Rogers might stay in Chicago. Or she might move to New York. Or she might do both.

"I'm still deciding if I'm going to be here or I'm going to be in New York," the former White House social secretary said during a Chicago Advertising Federation luncheon Thursday at the Palmer House Hilton.

Although Rogers, a Chicago fixture for years, has been spotted at several events here since resigning her White House post in February, she said she was moving out of Washington in early May and that her job prospects were "wide open." After her remarks, she told reporters that, ideally, she would like to split her time between New York and Chicago.

And so...

Desiree Rogers Hired By Johnson Publishing Co.

By Ruth Manuel-Logan on Jun 8th 2010 3:54PM

Desiree Rogers, the former White House social secretary who "left" to seek greener pastures after a major security faux paux occurred under her watch, was recently hired by Johnson Publishing Co., the owners of Jet and Ebony magazines, as a consultant.

Rogers, who is known for her love of haute couture and media exposure, will join the ranks of Ebony's newly hired editor-in-chief Amy Dubois Barnett.

No specific details have been released about the consulting duties, but a Johnson Publishing spokesperson stated that Rogers will help with corporate strategy.
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Honestly, I don't care either way what Ms. Rogers makes of the rest of her charmed life. Seriously, she has never done me any harm, and well might be perfect for this job. My sole interest here -- as Matt Taibbi has done with the Wall Street bailouts and Goldman Sachs -- is pointing out to our ruling class how transparently ridiculous the "you too can succeed by working hard and playing by the rules" narrative is becoming for millions of American families who look up from the small, daily panic attacks of trying to make home and kids and groceries and medical bills and a future all fit under a threadbare and ever-shrinking paycheck only to find that the rules for the Rulers and the rules for Commoners no longer have the slightest thing in common.

If you are one of those people whose career arc can best be described as "Pushed rock up hill...Rock rolled back down...Pushed rock back op...Rock rolled back down...Asked why in the world we were pushing stupid rock at all...Laid off after company hired Rock Pushing Process Improvement Visioneer consultant at 15 times my salary..." and do not understand how this is possible, the good people at Muckety have a helpful visual aid that explains all:




Or to put it more simply...


Rule 1: There is a club
Rule 2: You are not in it.