It is hardly surprising that this Secret Service sex scandal has … legs. But the only reason I’m revisiting it today is that President Obama finally weighed in last night in a way that flattered me even more than I suspect those Columbian prostitutes flattered the agents involved.
As it happened, though, I was called everything from a “male chauvinist pig” to an “ignorant fool” for writing in my original commentary that this is only a scandal because the female supervisor in charge overreacted:
If [supervisor] Reid had been one of the good ole boys instead of a newly appointed woman, this incident would have been handled just like all others had been (i.e., with the supervisor slapping the primary agent involved on the wrist and fellow agents ribbing him as a knucklehead and admonishing him to just pay up next time).
(“No Secret Service Scandal…If Supervisor Were a Man,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 23, 2012)
In fact, I argued that the real scandal is the way the Secret Service, easily the most honored and respected agency in the U.S. government, is having its reputation irreparably tarnished. Not to mention the travesty of so many agents losing their careers (nine so far) just because one of them haggled with a prostitute over payment for a little harmless sex.
In any case, here’s where the flattery comes in. Because here’s how no less a person than President Obama himself effectively dismissed this story last night during an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon:
These guys are incredible. They protect me, they protect Michelle, they protect our girls, they protect our officials all around the world… 99.9 percent of them every day they’re putting their lives on the line and do a good job. So a couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from, you know, what they do.
(Reuters April 24, 2012)
Specifically, Obama not only limited his censure of the agents to the mild ribbing I suggested the incident called for, but telegraphed his own belief that this scandal is much ado about nothing.
Actually, Reuters reporting that Obama “blamed the uproar on a couple of knuckleheads in an otherwise incredible agency” also supports my contention that this scandal has far more to do with political grandstanding than with any concern about the president’s safety. Which makes the notion that the agency itself needs to be investigated patent nonsense.
I also wrote in the above-referenced commentary that not since the impeachment of Bill Clinton has Washington been in the throes of such a sensational witch hunt. But don’t forget, we later discovered that the self-righteous Republicans who led the charge to impeach Clinton for having an extra-marital affair were themselves having extra-marital affairs.
Therefore, it would not surprise me to discover in due course that the Republicans leading this charge to drive a stake through the career of any Secret Service agent who has ever patronized a prostitute are themselves patronizing some of the high-class “escort services” this city is famous for. What’s more these politicians – untrained as they are – are far more likely to divulge government secrets during their assignations than agents are during theirs.
Meanwhile, I have warned repeatedly that the greatest threat to Obama’s safety is the way he insists on running up and down the stairs when boarding and deplaning Air Force One. I wish the Secret Service would get him to take more careful steps to avoid pulling a Gerald Ford and suffering far more than a bruised ego.
NOTE: I will be forced to adjust my attitude a little if the prostitute who set off this scandal by demanding more “cash money” shows up in a Hugo Chávez propaganda video the way Anna Chapman did in Vladimir Putin’s. But all indications are that she is far more likely to show up in the pages of the National Enquirer, having sold every titillating (even if embellished) detail of her story for mucho dinero.
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