White House social aide won't testify

WASHINGTON - The White House is refusing to send its social secretary to Congress on Thursday to testify about the gate-crashing at last week's state dinner -- a decision that prompted complaints from the top Republican on the committee holding the hearing.

Another House Republican emerged from a closed Secret Service briefing to blame the episode on a Secret Service officer who let an attention-hungry couple through the first security checkpoint although the pair had no invitation to President Obama's first state dinner. But a top Obama administration official also laid a share of the responsibility on the White House staff.

The ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, was the first to ask that White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, herself a guest at the dinner, be called to testify at Thursday's hearing.

By not sending Rogers, King said, "the White House is creating a needless confrontation and is raising serious issues about its judgment on the night of the state dinner."

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan has agreed to testify. Party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi are declining the committee's invitation to testify, their publicist said.

Defending the decision not to let Rogers testify, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs cited the separation of powers and a history of White House staff not testifying before Congress.

ASSOCIATED PRESS