Why is it that Bill Clinton having illicit sex is “Something between consenting adults and no one else’s business”, but Secret Service agents having legal extra-marital — last I checked prostitution is quasi-legal in Columbia — sex is a scandal and everyone’s business?
Maybe if the Secret Service agents had lied about it to a Grand Jury, would it have been okay then?
Just asking.
And apparently some military members may have been involved. In parties. Where sex is going on. As a former military member me-own-self this is my shocked face … let me show you it.
Seriously?! The first three-day pass I received when I signed out at the CQ desk there was a box of preventatives beside the sign-out sheet and I was not allowed to leave the desk until I had put some in my pocket. Is the United States Navy no longer famous — or infamous, if you prefer — for shenanigans at various foreign ports?
*sigh*
Granted, stiffing* short-changing** refusing to pay the full negotiated and contracted fee for services rendered is monumentally tacky — not to mention frankly embarrassing — on the part of the Secret Service, but I’m not sure that it merits the thundering denunciations by various poli-critters and expostulations of moral outrage by various media figureheads — at least, not until said poli-critters and media-critters check their own closets for hookers.
I do find it interesting that the solution to this little dust-up — according to popular and conventional wisdom — is to hire more female Secret Service agents.
While I applaud the hiring of more female agents (in my opinion, women make better law enforcement officers, you perverts), anyone who thinks that the distaff side of the species isn’t capable of just as much debauchery as the male half probably hasn’t been anywhere near a Motley Crue tour-bus circa 1987; a college spring-break party; a Girls Gone Wild video, or anywhere else that you can find adrenaline, tequila, and power in more or less equal quantities.
Ah, well.
LawDog
*Oh, I’m going to hell for that one.
**Somebody stop me!
I think the issue, to me, may be that they were supposedly on duty. You're right, what they do on their off time, more power to them. But they were in a foreign country protecting a US dignitary. And I use "dignitary" loosely. Even if they're not "on shift", they're on duty then, i.e. able to be called up at any time to respond to a situation.
In that case, what they did on duty would be considered inappropriate. I mean, going out on pass and hunting is a world of difference from ordering them in to the CQ's office.
And that is my only problem with the situation. Not what they did, or where, but when. Location not withstanding, if you're derelict on duty, that's a problem.
I would think that a Presidential protection detail in a foreign country is never off duty, and that said SS men cavorting with locals in a semi-non-friendly U.S. environment differs from normal military personnel.
I find myself thinking much the same thing.
It reminded me of the first time I found a Playboy in my son's room. Yeah, I was disappointed, but hey, at least it was Playboy! Could have been much worse.
The answer, I think, would be to reclaim the honor and integrity of the job, whatever sex they hire.
JIm- They were 'off-duty'… As far as the Navy, that STILL happens… 🙂
And if they 'really' want to go down that rabbit hole, how about we start with Congress??? Hmmm???
The reaction to both incidents were vastly overblown — Avoiding double entendre here is just impossible, so I'm not going to try — however, it seems to me that the folks doing the overreacting are much the same folks, so I'm not sure what contrast you intended to draw.
Meh, it's an election year. Everybody's got a thin skin in an election year. I don't think anyone expects this to affect the election, but it gives the people who squeal the loudest a chance to get on TV.
SS is charged with protecting the very apex of the National Command Authority, isn't it? Hookers, drunk in hotel rooms? At the very least, Mohammedan cells, and other lower lifeforms, are going to target these guys for intelligence collection from here on out.
How hard would it be to make an Arab girl look Colombian? What about a Kosovan girl?
I don't know…if the SS are going to put on all the airs of aviator shades and speaking into their cuffs, and knocking on doors along parade routes and demanding businesses have certain employees not come in to work on certain days, they might have to put up with a higher standard. The sailors on an SSBN might go on liberty and get laid and pick fights with Marines, but do the officers? What happens to Air Force Missile Combat Crewmen who get caught doing something like this? Do they keep their clearances?
Granted, in that last case, being run out of North Dakota might be worth it. I wonder if North Dakota girls look smokin' hot in string bikinis?
Mike James
The sex party was no more than undignified, true. Although I had always understood that the real rule for gov't agents was not "don't do it," but rather "don't get caught doing it." I think what really pushed this into scandal territory was the fact that some of the partiers were members of the current White House resident's protection detail, and they were loose-lipped about plans for said protection. An enemy agent could have used that information to good effect.
It's smoke and mirrors to distract people from the real issues the country faces.
It's okay, guys…
…they were undercovers agents, after all!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
To me, there are at least two issues. The first being that I understand that there was confidential information in the suite. The second, some of those men might well be married. Photos or other proof of the interactions with the ladies would then be blackmail material. Those with security clearances are supposed to avoid situations of a compromising nature.
Part of me want's to go ……it's an Obama detail so who cares. Some could have said the same thing about the Kennedy SS agents who were reported to have been drinking in Ft Worth the night before 11-22-63. Could they have prevented what happened they next day….probably not. Not much was made of it then and in the years following.
Had something happened to Obama the next day would todays press be so kind?
Seems the whole crew, SS, Navy, Army and State got screwed. Both ways.
Jim, I'll bet you they were deep undercover. :0
Pdwalker, the only means I have at hand to deal with the real issues the country faces is voting good and hard against the Gourmet-in-Chief and every other Democrat within pissing distance a few months from now. Anything more gets me crossways with the very SS we are talking about.
But I don't think of it as distracting. Having what I think of as Friday or Saturday night, in a foreign country, when you have a job like protecting the one and only guy who orders the use of strategic weapons, is sort of important. Bipartisan, actually, because I would be as concerned if these guys had done this with a Republican Presi…wait a minute.
Maybe this is a reflection of the esteem in which the bullet catchers hold the Chief Epicurian? Maybe they'd try harder if it were someone they'd feel better about perhaps conducting realistic tests of the body armor for, under actual field conditions.
If they gave a big fat Deuce about him, in other words.
I can, with authority, tell about a real issue facing the country, which we can all do something about, and it looks as if the Secret Service would gladly help–
Bettie Page's Birthday!
Only now can a nation, down on it's knees or close to it, grasp the truly monstrous nature of the killer Ira Einhorn's crime–not packing away his girlfriend, memorabilia-style, in a steamer trunk after disassembly, but the other one, appropriating Bettie Page's–Bettie Page's!–birthday for the fake commie propagandathon they call Earth Day, and I called Idle The Car In The Driveway And Turn Up Some Ted Nugent On The CD Player Day*. Until today, that is.
Link below to what I wrote on Roberta X's site, before I realized that I'm not the only one who would rather wish people Happy Bettie Page Day, rather than Happy Earth Day**:
Earth Day? Page Day!
Mike James
*As long as you don't get in and pull the car out onto the street, I think it's alright to drink beer or liquor on this day, too, but any guidance from a professional such as Lawdog would be received with gratitude. As Texas Jack Vermilion said in the movie Tombstone, "Law and order every time, that's us."
**Not mentioning the looks I get when I wish people Happy ITCITDATUSTNOTCDP Day. Mostly because saying it I've passed out or gotten dizzy four different times now.
Frankly, what bugged me far more than the fact they were getting their skivies knotted by a dues-paying member of the "There but by the grace of God go I" club – was the report that they were acting like a bunch of entitled twits, carousing and generally making drunken fratboys out of themselves. THAT and the fact they apparently were so assured in their entitlement to Free Nookie that they failed to act like gentleman and couldn't even be bothered to stage a quick whip-round to rustle up the $47 bucks. That's not just behaving badly – that's being outright TACKY as well as cheap.
I also had a small wonder – what do you think was the worst part of the plane ride home…
Knowing they were about to get horsewhipped on a international scale, that they would be the butt of every joke for the next few months, the knowledge that they were about to be fired for a rather humiliating thing… or knowing that when the plane touched down – their wives were going to be at the airport and they were about to have to have a whole lotta 'splaining to do. (In my mind, not only are the wives gonna be PISSED about the cheating – but the fact that THEY were humiliated on a grand public scale was just going to add several degrees of Suck to the whole situation)
As a wife myself, I have to think it is the later that had them chewing antacids as they circled in for landing.
Part of the reason for the fuss is the concern over Human Trafficking, which Uncle Sam takes a dim view of. whether or not prostitution is legal then-and-there, if any of the practitioners of the Oldest Profession are underaged and/or were cocerced into it, then Uncle regards it as aiding and abetting slavery.
And, yes, classified material, including the President's itinerary/schedule in the room(s) was also apparently a factor.
I'm guessing the DNC et. al. would like us all to go back to discussing Obama's culinary adventures…
1. You make noise about impeccable standards of behavior, don't be surprised about being called on departures from same.
2. Two issues working against that:
Drop in standards across
generations
and inclinations of young males.
3. Boom was lowered by 43 year old female who hadn't got the word.
4. Some of your (mostly female) commenters have cited excellent reasons for maintaining high standards.
5. With various integrations, the services have gotten more ostensibly moral.
6. Was reported for having one martini at the O Club and giving the Bartender (F and a friend) a good night peck on the cheek.
7. The service clubs are failing and bad behavior is going under ground.
8. SS same same?
9. Obviously, even with picked personnel, you have to clearly enunciate standards of behavior and in the case of young men and sex, sit hard on the beasts.
10. At odds with moral relativism being preached and the clay feet of our leadership on regular public display.
V/R JWest
Given the fact these guys have been "on the road" basically continuously for the last 3 years thanks to Obama's constant vacationing, I would have been of a mind to cut the guys some slack. It isn't as if they had had much of a chance to engage in that sort of activity with their wives/girlfriends much after all (assuming they even had time for such things.) as to the lack of payment, it is entirely possible that a combination of too much to drink, combined with a language barrier may have contributed to a misunderstanding as to what was owed for services, so again, I'm of a mind to cut them some slack there as well. the only real issue is the fact that they had documentation of Obama's security and itinerary in the room which was a breach of security, AND they bragged of their jobs. THAT is the only place where slack cannot be cut.
Geezz, I absolutely love the way you put things.
Jenna, you make me think that the ride home from the airport would be characterized by the sort of silence that is positively ear-splitting.
Mike James
Two more words, applicable both to the Big Creep and to the SS:
"Honey Trap".
All it would have taken was a iPhone parked in the right place and whoever was in bed with the bimbo is compromised. Used to happen a lot in Russia and China during the Bad Old Days.
If these agents- and the soldiers with them- weren't savvy enough to know the difference between being Advance Team and being on Spring Break, they shouldn't have their security clearances renewed, because they provably are security risks.
"Granted, stiffing* short-changing** refusing to pay the full negotiated and contracted fee for services rendered is monumentally tacky — not to mention frankly embarrassing –…."
Paying for whoopee is tacky.
Breaking your word is dishonorable.
Unfortunatly the feminists got the UCMJ amended around 2006 to ban prostitution.
Screw Bill Clinton. (metaphorically speaking. Or litterally, if he pays you enough, or is willing to share the good coke)
ENDERS GAME IS COMING TO THE SILVER SCREEN! With Harrison Ford. God, please don't let them f*** this up.
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1731141/
YESSSSSSS!!!
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." The Powers That Be, in my observation, are very large minded.:)
Here's what it's REALLY about: We expect MUCH more from USSS agents then we do from our elected officials.
Unless the individual hotel rooms were being swept regularly, and unless none of the agents kept any of the relevant info in their rooms, I have a real problem with bringing public affairs professionals back to the rooms. I do not believe that the supervisor who posted the Palin photo and comments on Facebook was a credit to the agency.
Having said that, the police department where i formerly worked coordinated with the Secret Service on a regular basis, and went through the 10 day executive protection program they used to run in D.C. police executives. Until these recent stories began to run, I had never had reason to think of the the USSS as anything other than a class act. The agents usually are cooperative, down to earth, and very competent. Very little of the, "We're the government…and you're not," one sometimes encounters with certain other agencies (and even THEY seem to be getting better about it)>