VIPs Shocked by Security Holes at Inauguration

It's that time, everybody: time for your latest bit of endless criticism of the Inauguration planning and preparedness!

In Friday's Washington Post, a number of VIP donors -- ones with all-access passes to the festivities -- complain about the lack of security they witnessed on several occasions.

One frightening example of the porous security involves three major fundraising bundlers, who said that "they were never asked to show identification to retrieve dozens of tickets, including VIP passes that allowed them and their guests to meet privately with Obama." Several other VIPs noted that "after a screening to sit in a ticketed area near Obama for his swearing-in, they mingled with public crowds but were never again checked for firearms or explosives."

It's shocking to consider such things, and one must always be diligent at big, outdoor Obama parties. But it's important to understand that Secret Service, FBI, local police and others run Obama events in a very specific way: with more care than you can imagine. For example: it would have been impossible for a VIP to even consider smuggling a weapon in from the public crowds, because the Secret Service would have already killed that VIP several days earlier.

Then again, it didn't help that these same concerned VIPs were posting "accounts of the lax security ... broadcast in near-real time" -- on their Twitter pages!

Chris Sacca, a tech investor who raised money for the inaugural committee, posted a message on the social messaging Web site Twitter at 6:45 a.m. after passing through the checkpoint. "We were thoroughly X-rayed, then walked across a public street in the open," Sacca wrote...

Well, Sacca, no one got to Obama on Inauguration Day, but not because you didn't try!