Who Watches the Watchers

I want to point out two stories in the news, not as a partisan issue, but to demonstrate why I'm so keen on keeping the checks and balances and oversight that this country is supposed to have.

The issues in question are not partisan (except to the extent that they are governmental, and the government is almost exclusively Republican just now), the same things could just as well have gone on during a Democratic administration. Nevertheless...

Story 1 involves a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security who was caught trolling on line for 14 year old girls. He apparently felt so secure and protected in his job that he bragged about who he was and what he did, giving the detective (posing as a 14 year old girl) his home and cell telephone numbers, as well as sending pornographic photos and videos of himself to the detective (whom, I repeat, he believed to be a 14 year old girl).

The second story involves the head of the Tampa (FL) office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fondling himself and exposing himself to a teenaged girl in a mall. He had previously been the head of a national program targeting child predators.

So what, you may be asking, do two stories about pedophiles have to do with warrantless spying? Only this: Both of these men were in positions of power relating to keeping this country secure. One of them had previously been charged with protecting children from exactly the sort of behavior he himself engaged in. The point is that you never know who is going to turn out not to be who you thought they were. You never know who is going to be a pedophile or a rapist or a tax cheat or... whatever. People keep their predilictions secret.

And so we return to unchecked Presidential power. We don't know what the pecedillos of this President (or any others) are. We don't know who can be trusted to use unchecked and unoverseen power responsibly and who might be tempted to misuse it.

These were two men in positions of power, who probably thought that their powerful positions would protect them from being caught. Fortunately, they were wrong. What might a President (this one or the next one or the one after that) do once it is well established that Presidents are not subject to normal scrutiny?

No one is so noble, so pure, so incorruptible as to be trusted with that level of power in a country that prides itself on NO ONE being above the law.

Liam.