Posted on 03/27/2014 10:36:46 PM PDT by chessplayer
One of the many pearls of wisdom that alcoholism recovery programs impart can be applied to the guys who caused the U.S. Secret Service's latest imbroglio. It's not that every time an agent drinks on the road, he has a problem. It's that, whenever there's an incident, it's usually because he's been drinking.
The Secret Service has a drinking problem. It's much worse than any other cultural deficit the elite agency has. It's more widespread than sexism, certainly, and the other isms that have been attached to the agency since the prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia. It's something that every journalist who covers the White House kind of knows, intuitively, if they've ever traveled with the president. Pick your favorite White House correspondent and ask him or her whether agents on President George W. Bush's detail created problems at the Wild West saloon in Waco. One former White House scribe told me that although reporters regularly witnessed agents drinking heavily BEFORE shifts, "we just assumed they could control themselves. After all, they were the ones who were the most responsible of all of us."
But often, agents drinking with each other don't have the foresight, or the ability, frankly, to tell their colleagues to stop drinking without losing face. In the Netherlands, not only was a member of the Counter-Assault Team drunk, he was falling-down drunk. He was sleeping on the floor of a hallway drunk. And several of his team members were drunk, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
They drank like fish back when I worked with them in 1988-89.
Why do they do this?
Supposedly Lincoln's bodyguard was not at his post during the assassination. He was at a saloon.
And this was prior to the Secret Service even being created.
Really pathetic that these guys have such a responsibility and choose to act like frat boys.
I've heard the term, "once the wheels go up, the rings come off".
Referring to Air Force One.
I've read that Howard Hughes hired Mormons to be his bodyguards because they didn't drink, and would be clear-headed at all times.
They also seem to have a problem with following rules and not acting stupidly.
No surprise. The good ones moved on or moved out, leaving Obama with the dregs and goons.
You would be drunk out of your skull too if you had to protect BHO 24/7.
Mostly because they have no life and have been divorced more than once already. I sure wouldn’t do that job.
Okay, so let me ask you fellow FReepers.
If you had to guard this ass-hat, wouldn’t you be drunk?
Of course I jest about it. This isn’t right. I just find it rather humorous that with all the lowered standards Obama thinks are great, this lowered standard seem to bother the media.
All the lowered standards should bother people.
“Howard Hughes hired Mormons to be his bodyguards because they didn’t drink, and would be clear-headed at all times.”
This is something that makes me understand why Howard Hughes ended up as wealthy as he did. He had the sense to take cultural considerations into hiring who he wanted. He knew the Mormon laws and used it to his advantage.
Would that we would do the same.
Not just bodyguards. Nurses, valets, cooks, butlers, maids, whatever. He only hired LDS for his personal staff.
Mostly because they have no life and have been divorced more than once already. I sure wouldn’t do that job.
I sure wouldn’t want to have to depend on them to protect me.
I would need a drink too, maybe a lot of drinks if I knew my job was to instantly sacrafice my life, say adios to my wife and kids for what? For this here President? Hmmm . The secret service man is not provided the indulgence or the luxury of cherry picking which professional vows to honor.
Charles Napier comes into Melvin Dumar's gas station and buys a pack of cigarettes, and leaves a copy of Howard Hughes' will.
As Napier leaves, you see he's thrown the cigarettes out the window of his car.
I never "got" that scene until I found out about Hughes and Mormons.
No drinking, and no smoking.
Wonder how many 1980 audience members picked up on that detail.
I sure didn't.
In a way its kinda sad. But, on the other hand, these are men with responsibility...so I say grow up and man up.
I guess if I had to protect the 2 lowlifes in the White House, I’d be drunk all the time too
“No surprise. The good ones moved on or moved out, leaving Obama with the dregs and goons.”
I believe we have a winner.
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