White House Gate Crashers...

To start with, please don't take me wrong; what these two chuckleheads did is wrong, and shouldn't be condoned or rewarded. That said, I think of them as a couple of nuts, but ultimately (except for the ugly precedent that's been set), harmless.

Do you remember Mathias Rust? He was the (arguably nuts) West German amateur Cessna 172 pilot who landed his plane in Red Square, Moscow, during the height of the cold war. The incident was a great source of embarrassment to the Russian government, and resulted in many top military officials losing their jobs. Maybe we can draw a similar corollary here; the White House gate crashers (and Rust) were wrong, but a) they were ultimately harmless, and b) they performed an accidental public service by pointing out security systems which the general public believed to be impenetrable to be somewhat less protecting of their charges. There should be some significant investigation as to how this even was allowed to occur. The gate crashers essentially, once they spill their guts, should be questioned mercilessly, but I would stop short of prosecution. After all, they did us a favor.