Just a few months ago First Lady Michelle Obama was being compared to Marie Antoinette because she wore a slamming off-the-shoulder designer top and some shades as she walked the cobble stone streets of Spain. Now she's being criticized for not evoking images of an elitist monarchy for the greedy social insiders of Washington, DC. The Politico news blog, in its latest screed against the First Lady, laments that Michelle Obama's White House doesn't remind DC insiders enough of "Camelot."

That's right -- the imaginary royal realm of Arthurian legend that many historians use metaphorically to describe the aura of the Kennedy administration. (We all know now what that was like in real life.) Her chief crime? Apparently not rubbing elbows with "the right kind of people" in Washington, DC -- basically the political wives and powerful influencers of the city. And how does Politico demonstrate that this decision makes Michelle Obama not queenly enough?

In a grand display of a complete and total lack of journalistic self awareness or history, Politico features a cluster of judgemental statements and subjective quotes from various high brow (as in, "who?") sources:

Sally Quinn? Who? Really, Politico. Really?

Was Michelle Obama "keeping to herself" when she was trudging around with school kids from Bancroft elementary, harvesting veggies in the White House garden? Was she "not inclusive" when she spent hours trumping along with hundreds of little ones dressed in their Sunday finest for the White House Easter Egg Roll -- many of whom would never have gotten an opportunity to participate if Michelle Obama had not democratized the ticketing process, allowing parents to obtain tickets online? And what of the First Lady's mentoring program? Was she "very funny socially" when she took a group of young girls to hang out with Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonya Sotomayor at the Supreme Court of the United States? I guess she wasn't "revitaliz[ing] some of the glamour of the White House" when she was hula hooping in the Ro Sham Bo Relay on the South Lawn at the White House Healthy Kids Fair -- but that's exactly her point.

The White House isn't a castle and the last time I checked, the American public wasn't looking to reinstate Camelot. It is the residence and headquarters for the executive branch of government. The whole point of the American ideal is that we aren't supposed to be a monarchy. We don't have kings and queens -- and the first lady socializes with us, not just the elite. Real people, ordinary people are "the right kind of people" to invite to the White House. And First Lady Michelle Obama has hosted the real people of America at her home in spades -- and different shades, as for the first time in recent history the White House has consistently hosted prominent African Americans and honored our various nationalities.

History will remember her as the first lady who re-opened the White House after the horrific attacks of 9/11. In the aftermath of the terrorists attacks on New York City, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania, the capital physically changed. Streets closed. Air traffic patterns were altered. Barricades went up. Access to the White House was severely restricted for ordinary Americans. Michelle Obama changed all that. She held over 300 public events there in the first 12 months of her tenure. In 2009 alone over 600,000 people visited the White House due to her amazing level of inclusive hospitality.

Keeping to herself? Come on. To put this complaint into perspective, the Bushes (as was their prerogative) did not throw a ton of social events during their time in the White House. In eight years in office, First Lady Laura Bush hosted six state dinners. Michelle Obama hosted two within her first 18 months. The only real jab that Politico is able to get in on Mrs. O is that many think the insiders' circle of politicians' wives found at cocktail parties with the "haves" is a critical part of how Washington business gets done -- and that it's her job as a political wife to help her husband make inroads towards forging these connections.

That may have been how political business used to get done -- but, the Obamas promised change, and that's what DC politicos are going to get as well. Their days of preferred access to the White House, president and first lady have come to a close.

Plus, the first lady knows that no matter what she does, the yapping chihuahuas of the elitist DC social scene will never be happy, so she's keeping the commitment she made at the beginning of her tenure to the American people. She knows that if ordinary Americans don't get access to the White House during her tenure, they may never get access again because the power elite who typically guards its entry appears to be under the delusion that only it comprises the "right kind" of people to have access to the White House and its occupants. And Politico.com is happy to be the whining mouthpiece of the DC power elite. It's a good thing First Lady Michelle Obama knows who she really works for.

If Washington, DC political and social elitists long for the days of a fictitious monarchy, I suggest they hop on their brooms and fly across the Atlantic and ask for an audience with Kate Middleton. Good luck getting inside Buckingham Palace!