When Mom ran the Secret Service

[SoCalDem]

First of all, I DID see her testimony and it pretty much left me thinking "why on earth was she put in that position anyway?".

and then I started remembering all the "stuff" that has gone on (and probably still does) within the agency.

It is still considered to be a macho...male dominion. Sure, they do have women agents and employees, but the aura of the organization is male....bad-boy frat guy male.

The story about "wheels-up-rings-off" flights to exotic lands, where they routinely (some of them) frequented brothels, got drunk and routinely misbehaved, brought it into focus for me.

There is a cadre of agents who are probably pretty senior by now, who like to party, and many of them probably do not even like the Obamas all that much. (see papers given to Romney campaign story). They do their jobs minimally, and keep their fingers crossed that nothing too bad ever happens. They bide their time until their retirement perks kick in, and from time to time get to guard a president they like.

This group probably saw red when "Mom" was put in charge in March of 2013, and may have set out to discredit her and eliminate her.

As director, she had the responsibility to change behaviors that the ones committing them did not want changed.

She was probably never present at any of the incidents that have recently come to light, and may have only had reports about them. Anyone who has ever written an incident report knows how to write them in a manner that either downplays or amplifies a situation. The "whistleblowers" seemed very eager to see that Jason Chaffetz got the information they should have been sending to their boss..."MOM".. I don;t think they did it that way because they thought she could not handle the job.. I think they did it to prove that she was incapable of doing the job. They probably liked things the way they were..loose & free...and secret..(until a hooker blabs).

It's not surprising to me that she is now gone, and that the interim replacement is a man who was "one of the guys"..a former footballer, a guy who was in charge on the night the Salahis showed up for dinner.

my $.02

[GummyBearz]

1. Yea

I agree they mostly are a bunch of frat boys running around doing frat boy stuff.

I'd like your thoughts on the first question of your post... "why on earth was she put in that position anyway?".

Just for PR purposes? I can't come up with much else

[SoCalDem]

2. Someone liked the optics of Mom cleaning up after her naughty boys

but like most naughty boys everywhere over time, they found a way around her rules..

[LawDeeDah]

4. She may have been very qualified

but the system of frats tripped her up wherever they could, didn't give her the respect she deserved, probably called her vile names amongst themselves like insecure grown up toddlers do, filed incomplete reports to make it look like she didn't know what was going on, etc.

Women in 'men's' jobs get the shit kicked out of them, especially firsters. Way back when we got our first woman firefighter, some of the guys couldn't handle it and called her every filthy name in the book for anyone to hear, made her work harder for her whenever they could, and of course this was all cool and funny and macho man doin his thing.

[seabeyond]

6. i kinda felt that over the last handful of days. i didnt want to get into it. but, when she first

stepped in, she was calling out the "bad boy" shit. they didnt like that. they didnt like obama. and they didnt like a woman as boss.

all that happens seems predictable.

[LawDeeDah]

12. People are saying she did terribly at the hearing.

I saw parts of it and I didn't see that at all. She had to play it like she did, she couldn't just shout out that some of those SS guys, the wheels up rings down pigs, were too interested in getting drunk and laid rather than their jobs. I would like to know what was said in the closed session.

[SoCalDem]

14. Yes, she was in a no-win position

and those sessions should have ALL been private. There are things she could not divulge in a public setting, and she knew it.

There was probably no real proof of sabotage, and to bring that up would be tantamount to whining..

She had to fall on her sword and give up her long career that she could have continued for years to come. She now exits as a laughingstock, fully discredited, and retired long before she wanted to be.

And the flag has been planted.. The flag says "Boyz Rule..No Momz Allowed"

[Nye Bevan]

3. I would like a Secret Service head who wanders around the White House once in a while,

checks that everything is in order security-wise, looks around the grounds, maybe tries the front door and says something along the lines of "Hey! Why the hell isn't this door locked?"

[Jenoch]

7. I agree with you.

But I disagree with others who seem to believe that ALL of the members if the secret service are frat boys. I tbink they are a small minority. I also believe that the unlocked door and lax procedures are a top down problem. The drinking and hookers in foreign lands are a frat boy problem that never should have happened if those in charge had been paying attention to their subordinates.

[SoCalDem]

9. No one said "ALL"..

The "club" need not be large to be disruptive..

[Jenoch]

11. The posts I read never indicated that

the problem agents are a minirity and the term 'Secret Service' is a collective description.

I also agree that Pierson was put into a position in which she could not succeed. Whomever is the next director needs to be a motivated bad ass who is both respected and feared by the agents and those responsible for the recent screwups/cover ups, and poor performance.

As an aside, and this may not be news recieved warmly, the agents hated Hillary because she treated them poorly. I think they liked Bill. I have no idea how the Obamas are thoight of by their protective detail.

[SoCalDem]

8. Because, apparently that door was never locked

That may be a bad idea all-round, but there was an alarm, and it was guarded..

until the alarm was muted.. ..and the guard was apparently not expecting a weirdo to come barging in.. Perhaps the door-guard expected the yard-guys would stop anyone wandering around

[UTUSN]

5. No. Physicality. The jumper crashed through a female at the door.

It's a matter of physical mass.

[Nye Bevan]

10. In this day and age, who is going to be prepared to be politically incorrect enough

to insist that the person guarding the door is a big, strong, physically intimidating guy?

[AverageJoe90]

13. I hate to say this, but you may very well be right.

And, btw, 50 years ago, some of the more reactionary members didn't like blacks too much, either; Abraham Bolden testified to that quite well.