Security & Reality

As Secret Service Director Julia Pierson gets ready for her grilling, we have yet another reminder of how dysfunctional our government has become. I’m not talking about the administration; I’m talking about the professional agencies within the government. The CIA, FBI, Secret Service and the entire Homeland Security network continues to have embarrassing situations that they foolishly attempt to cover up, make excuses for, and then attempt to “spin” in some more favorable fashion.

A simple matter of a man with a knife being able to jump the fence and get inside of the White House is much more than a simple wake up call, is screams of a system(s) that simply isn’t doing the basic job that is supposed to be it’s core competence. The Secret Service does many things but guarding the President is it’s first and foremost responsibility. When an intruder not only can get into the White House, but can walk into a door that is supposed to be guarded 24/7 as well as over power another agent, it’s time for a serious top to bottom review of this agency as well as any and possibly ALL agencies that make up our government. Gone are the a** kicking public servants that used to have the power and authority to push the bureaucrats aside in order to get the job done. So diminished is the power of any agency chief that they quake in their boots at any suggestion they should take on a responsibility for which they cannot quickly pass the buck to some other agency. They have become, in a word, dysfunctional.

Fixing such a problem is no easy task. There was a time when many of these top spots were filled with people out of industry that chose to serve out of a sense of responsibility rather than some hidden agenda. They did their four years, then returned back to the public sector and their reward was, simply the knowledge they did their job well and the respect of their peers for doing just that. Political appointee’s based upon campaign support was poo-poo’ed and their was a serious effort to find the very best for the job, regardless of favoritism, political party, or personal agenda. Their job was to kick a**, take names, and get the job done. Period!

It’s going to take a person at the top that pushes away all political obligations, accepts they may be a one term president, and focus on making the best of those four years. Their reelection will come if they have done a good enough job and being reelected based upon merits is a compliment greater than gold bullion.

Unfortunately I simply don’t see such a person in the upcoming flock of candidates. I do see a bunch of “me first” people that will promise us anything and everything; and of course, deliver nothing. We need a person of significant character, demonstrated character – not just talk without substance. But most of all we need voters that can put aside all the fluff, the spin, the bullshit, and all of that other nonsense and evaluate the candidate in the purest form.

Julia Pierson is just another in a long list of broken promises. There is little reason to expect better from the next director. One has to honestly ask “do they have to actually kill another president in order to take this serious”? Sadly, the answer is becoming far too obvious …..