Drunk Secret Service agents drove a government vehicle into a security barricade protecting the White House last week. The senior agents had been drinking at a party. The incident is the first publicly known Secret Service screw-up since Joseph P. Clancy took over as director just last month. The Obama administration installed Clancy to try to clean up the Secret Service, which has become an national embarrassment. In just one incident among many lapses, in September an intruder jumped the White House fence and was deep inside the building before being apprehended.
Clancy was promoted from within the Secret Service–he personally used to head up President Obama’s security detail. Putting an insider on the job has not had the culture-changing effect the service requires. Clancy requested that the latest “inquiry be led by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, in part because the incident involves such senior officials,” according to the Washington Post.