Her dress was perfect. Her protocol was anything but.
Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, thought she was the belle of the ball at last week’s state dinner — gussied up in a spectacular Comme des Garçons gown and seating herself as if she were an honored guest.
It would have been a perfect affair for the woman in charge of the whole shebang had it not been for two publicity-hungry social climbers who crashed the party and put new focus on her own attention-seeking ways.
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.”
Rogers declined the committee’s invitation “based on separation of powers,” said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The move prompted immediate condemnation from Congress.
“It’s a terrible decision by the White House. They are obviously stonewalling. You have to conclude there is something to hide,” said Rep. Peter King (R-LI), the committee member who asked Rogers to testify.
Also declining the Committee’s invitation are the Salahis. A statement issued last night by their publicist said, “Having providing all relevant information to Representatives King and [Chairman Bennie] Thompson [D-Miss], there is nothing further that they can do to assist Congress in its inquiry . . . They therefore respectfully decline to testify.”
The statement adds that before the Salahis were admitted to the dinner, they presented their passports to “three different Secret Service Agents at various White House checkpoints.”
Thompson later threatened to subpoena the pair.
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan is expected to appear.
Rogers broke protocol, especially for a freshman social secretary, when she seated herself as a guest at the dinner. Gibbs refused to say if she had invited herself or was a guest of the Obamas.
Unlike past social secretaries, Rogers, 50, loves the limelight.
She posed for Vogue and WSJ., The Wall Street Journal’s lifestyle magazine, this year as she settled into her job at the top of Washington society’s hierarchy.
Within weeks of her appointment, she jetted to Manhattan for Fashion Week, where she snagged front-row seats for top shows.
Rogers has been a prolific fund-raiser for the president.
Separately, the White House announced new state-dinner procedures requiring staff to be stationed at all Secret Service checkpoints.
And on NBC’s “Today” show, Vice President Joe Biden said he had no idea who the Salahis were when he posed with them.
Asked if they should face charges, Biden said, “As that old joke goes, that’s above my pay grade.”