Secret Service chief in spotlight
WASHINGTON — The director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, could have retired from government nearly 10 years ago and avoided the scandals of the White House gate crashers and, more recently, the one involving a dozen agents, officers and supervisors implicated in a prostitution case.
Instead, Sullivan chose to remain in the Secret Service, where he has spent half his life. The question is: Will Sullivan will be allowed to keep his job as the scandal unfolds in coming weeks?
Sullivan, 58, appears to have weathered the storm’s early stages,
although details are still shaking out and congressional hearings haven’t started. He’s credited with taking quick disciplinary action and being open about facts in the sordid affair with members of Congress, with whom he has shrewdly cultivated important relationships over the years.
When Sullivan learned April 12 about reports of prostitutes with Secret Service agents, officers and supervisors in Cartagena, he quickly expressed concern about the president’s security, according to a senior Secret Service official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Assured there was no threat, Sullivan instructed all the implicated employees to be removed from Colombia.
Later, Sullivan personally called the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at home to talk about the investigation. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., spoke fondly of Sullivan during a subsequent oversight hearing, noting that he has known the director since Sullivan was just a Secret Service agent.
“I think he’s doing all he can to ensure a timely and thorough investigation, accountability for behavior that failed to meet the standards he expects, and certainly the standards that the president of the United States and the American people deserve,” Leahy said.
There have been only a few signs so far of eroding support. The White House has said the president — who joked in a speech during the weekend about a new curfew for Secret Service agents — remained supportive of Sullivan.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R- Iowa, said last week that Sullivan’s job could be secure if the scandal were an isolated incident. “But if it goes much deeper, you know, nothing happens or nothing’s changed in Washington if heads don’t roll,” Grassley said.
Another lawmaker, Rep. Chip Cravaack, R- Minn., on the House Homeland Security Committee, warned against a “knee- jerk reaction” and urged a full investigation. But he compared Sullivan as the agency’s director to the captain of a foundering ship: “I’m a Navy guy,” he said. “The captain of the ship can be in his cabin sleeping and if the ship runs aground the captain of the ship is responsible. I’m not saying anybody’s head should roll here, but I expect the captain of the ship to do the right thing.”
But in Washington, where there is deep respect for the office of the presidency — even among critics of President Barack Obama — there has been a general reluctance to harshly criticize the agency that quietly keeps the president and his family safe from harm. In another response to the prostitution scandal, Sullivan late Friday announced new conduct rules for its agents to prohibit them from drinking excessively, visiting disreputable establishments while traveling or bringing foreigners to their hotel rooms. Sullivan urged agents and other employees to “consider your conduct through the lens of the past several weeks.”