The Secret Service and the climbers at the gate

The House Committee on Homeland Security has called a hearing tomorrow to look into how alleged White House party crashers were able to get in without an invitation to last week's state dinner.

In addition to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, the Committee has "invited" party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi.

Jon Adler, National President of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, told FederalNewsRadio he wishes the hearing "would have been done behind closed doors, perhaps in a more discrete manner, rather than played to, or validate, the celebrity quest of these two individuals."

It should not empower the celebrity quest of two individuals who are now trying to sell their souls to march onto some reality TV program. The value of what's going to happen tomorrow, I think, is minimal. I think it's actually counter-productive to hold a hearing like that. The Secret Service fully recognizes they made a mistake, but the best way to approach this in a positive manner is to support them in reviewing what happened to make sure nothing like that happens again, or at least to minimize the chances of that happening again.

Instead, Adler said "as unfortunate as this incident is," there is a way to get some good out of the situation: Congress should step up and support the funding for the uniformed division.

When you spread people too thin, they're more inclined to make mistakes whether it's a physical mistake or a mental error. And when people are... burning the candle at both ends, not getting enough sleep, under a significant amount of stress, we tend to or are more likely to make bad decisions.

One change already made to White House protocol: the social office says it will go back to making sure that one of its staff members will be present at the gates in the future to help the Secret Service if questions come up about who is, and is not, invited.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, now says his panel may move to subpoena the couple.