You’ll get no argument from me. It was a rather unusual response by the USSS, under the circumstances, even if you don’t buy into the truther bill o’ goods.
I realize the time the USSS guards former presidents and families is now 10 years, but was that retroactive, or is that just for presidents that transitioned to a former status after 1995? IE, is Jimmy C sitting down in Plains with just Rosalyn for company, or does he still get lifetime protection?
It’s possible the logic went something like this:
3 or 4 planes are involved in attacks in New York City and Washington DC.
Bush is not in NYC or WDC.
The risk to Bush is moderate (rather than urgent).
It’s not retroactive; the Bushes are the first to be subject to the new time limit.
Powers &8^]
Not meaning to cause too much thread drift, but a week ago a young man, well-groomed and dressed to the nines, knocked on my door. At first I thought he was a Mormon, but they always travel in pairs.
He flashed his USSS badge at me! I said, “Cool! Can I see that again?”:smack:, but he was all business. He told me that the neighbor two doors down had applied for a Federal job and that he was investigating. Since I didn’t know the man, he asked general questions about unusual traffic to the house or any police squad cars visiting.
Federal job?!? Maybe a security clearance…?
This agent was almost certainly not a Secret Service agent. He probably worked for the security clearance investigation office in some federal agency. (I presume that you didn’t look closely at his badge.) Your neighbor presumably was applying for a job that required a security clearance. What the agent was doing is standard procedure for security clearances above a certain level. They talk to anyone who lives next to the applicant and ask about their knowledge of the applicant. Since you didn’t really know him, all they could ask about were obvious things like whether he was constantly drunk, stoned, fighting with his neighbors, etc.
I didn’t look closely at this badge, but the business-type card on the top of it had his name on it and it said in large letters UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE.
Just sayin’.
I presume that the Secret Service has its own office to do security clearance investigations. In that case, it’s possible that your neighbor is applying for a job at the Secret Service. The Secret Service doesn’t do investigations for clearances for other agencies. I still suspect you misread the card on the badge.
Damned fine article.
I alsp remember reading that Truman used to walk so fast on his morning constitutionals that he’d out-pace his security team.
An update:
As I mentioned in my column three years ago, “Ex-presidents used to get lifetime protection, but that was reduced by act of Congress in 1995 to a period of ten years after leaving office, effective in 2001. There were suggestions in the wake of 9/11 that lifetime post-White House protection should be reinstated, and it may yet be.”
President Obama has just signed legislation restoring lifetime Secret Service protection to all Presidents and their spouses: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/10/obama-signs-bill-gets-secret-service-protection-for-life/?iref=obnetwork
To the average person, this sounds like a good idea, but, I don’t think it’s necessarily a good move. Since time immemorial, it has been a standard ambush trick to create an incident in hopes of luring a target out into the open. I think that if the SS had run W out of the door immediately, there is a possibility that they could have just led him into some sort of killing zone. Unless the President was under fire, there is good ground for not running around all helter-skelter.
Thanks for the update. I find this bizarre, especially for a President so worried about deficit reduction.
Powers &8^]
I think returning ex-POTUSes to lifetime protection is a great thing. Presidents are trending younger. It’s likely that GWB will be alive in 2018 (when he’ll turn 72), and that Obama will be alive in 2026 (when he’ll turn 65). Unless some moron shoots 'em. Either is unpopular enough in some quarters to be a target - no matter how stupid shooting an ex-President is. (Really, really stupid. You can’t believe how stupid it would be.) former Presidents need protection, and until that sad fact changes they should get it. I vehemently disagreed with GWB while he was in office, but I wish no harm to come to him or his family. Until everyone feels the same way and can sing Kumbaya, we need protection for former Presidents.
I think this was bound to happen. Not providing it is bound to cause a problem. And then we would end up providing it again anyway - after going through a tragedy.
Might as well have removed the plexiglass in front of the Mona Lisa or remove metal detectors from airports.
Some things would just bring out the crazies.
Well said. I completely agree. And it’ll be a drop in the bucket of the Federal budget.
Quite apart from the run of the mill crazies who might wish to get some belated revenge or something, with the era of terrorism in our faces, an Ex-President would make a decent target for terrorists wishing to strike our national image.
Agreed.
Not to start drifting too far off-topic, but does anybody know what the equivalent is in other, established 1st world countries?
Does Margaret Thatcher get some sort of protection, for example?
Who is this ‘Urban Dictionary’ guy - and where does he get his info?
‘Plotz’ does not mean ‘shit’ (or ‘astonishment’, sorry) – it means ‘to burst’
Therefore, one may ‘plotz’ with shit, joy, anger, or yummy strawberry-flavored filling.
‘Plotzed’ - is not a real derivative of ‘plotz’ and probably occurred when someone, unfamiliar with Yiddish, thought that it was a made-up word and (I agree with Appalling Gael - although I don’t think it’s ‘posh’) just decided it sounded like a cute way to say ‘plastered.’
(… and that’s all I have to say about that)
Everyone: it’s essentially a descriptive linguistics corpus, where the people can vote on the accuracy of a definition.
Agreed. Plotz means explode in Yiddish.