Michaele Salahi Photos: The Face of a Fame-Seeker?

You probably know who Michaele Salahi is by now. She is the wife of Tareq Salahi; Michaele and Tareq Salahi are the Virginia couple who famously (or should I say infamously?) crashed this week's state dinner at the White House. Is it any wonder then, that, at the time of this writing, Michaele Salahi photos are one of Google Trends top trending topics?

On Friday, the White House released a photo of Michale Salahi clasping President Obama's hand in the Blue Room at the state dinner - which was held in honor of Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India. In addition, Michaele Salahi posted pictures of her and Tareq Salahi standing next to Vice President Joe Biden on her Facebook page. Indeed, photos of Michaele Salahi are all over the Internet. If Michaele and Tareq Salahi were looking to get attention by pulling this stunt (and if you don't think that was their primary motive, I have some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you), then they most certainly has accomplished their mission - though it should be noted that the couple could face legal troubles if it can be established that they made false statements in order to gain entry into the party.

The White House party crashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, have been a source of great embarrassment to the Secret Service. In fact, that Michaele and Tareq Salahi were able to crash Tuesday's state dinner at the White House should be a huge wakeup call to President Obama's security detail. How could the couple get past what should have been the world's most tightly secured party? It has been widely reported, in fact, that officials did not find out about the egregious security breach until after Michaele and Tareq Salahi left the dinner.

This is sobering news indeed. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama attracted record-breaking crowds and innumerable threats on his life. Consequently, he was provided with a level of security that was on a par with a sitting president. And, as noted above, Michaele and Tareq Salahi got to within inches of the president. This is inexcusable.

So, somebody needs to held accountable for this shocking security breach. And it is imperative that something of this nature never happens again.

Meanwhile, it is being reported in multiple media outlets that Michaele and Tareq Salahi pulled their stunt in order to be considered for a reality TV series. This is reminiscent of the bizarre balloon boy incident. Last month, Richard and Mayumi Heene launched a flying saucer-shaped homemade balloon and conned the nation into thinking their 6-year-old son Falcon was in it.

One can only hope that this is not the beginning of a trend. First you have the Heene family pulling a horrible hoax in order to get the attention of TV producers; then you have Micahele and Tareq Salahi crashing a White House state dinner.

How far will a shameless fame-seeker go to to get their 15 minutes of fame?

Sources:

Dinner crashers shook hands with President Obama, The Associated Press

Child Protective Services to Check out Falcon Heene's Family, abcnews.go.com