White House Hopes Gates, Crowley Come For Beer This Week

The White House says plans are under way for the police officer and professor at the center of a racial controversy to join President Barack Obama for a beer.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs says he hopes Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. will have a drink with the president this week.

Crowley arrested Gates in his home earlier this month after receiving a report of a possible break-in. Obama initially said the police acted "stupidly." But the president called Crowley Friday and told him he regretted his choice of words. The two discussed getting a beer at the White House with Gates.