Fousesquawk Book Review-In the President's Secret Service

Yesterday, I bought the new book by Ronald Kessler-In the President's Secret Service, a portrait of the federal agency that guards our president and other high-ranking officials. It is the first time I have read a book basically cover to cover. (I finished it this morning.) Kessler has written many books about federal law enforcement agencies, and this is his latest.

Kessler's basic thesis is that the USSS is comprised of first class agents who do a great job under heavy pressure. overwork and lack of sufficient resources. To this, he lays the blame on upper management and the culture of a tight bureaucracy that pays little attention to the professional and personal needs of its workforce. As to the first, I heartily agree because I had occasion to work with the USSS during my days as a DEA agent. I still have a Secret Service commendation hanging proudly on my wall from when DEA and the USSS both had offices in the US Consulate in Milan, Italy where I was working in the mid-1980s. I have always had great respect for the agency. (One of the managers Kessler interviewed for the book was stationed in Milan at the same time I was.)

One of the most interesting parts of the book is where Kellsler relates impressions and stories about various presidents and their families that the Secret Service protected. Of course, agents are not supposed to talk out of school about what they observe guarding the president and his family. However, among agents, the stories do come out, and obviously a few retired agents gave tidbits to the author.

I always had the impression that Lyndon Johnson was the ultimate legend among Secret Service agents. The stories about him are legion. Among presidents who come off as the most likable are both Bushes and Ronald Reagan simply because they treated their protective detail with respect.

The worst impression, not surprisingly, is Jimmy Carter, who treated his agents with a cold disdain refusing to even talk to them unless necessary. A couple of stories that appeared in the book worth mentioning are the Christmas morning in Plains, Georgia when Carter came out to pick up his paper and would not even greet the agents in front of his house, which they had been guarding all night. The other was Carter's micromanagement to the point of even personally controlling the access to the White House tennis court. I mention those two anecdotes because the same stories were related to me by agents when I was in DEA including one of the agents guarding his house in Plains.

Hillary Clinton also comes off as ....well....Hillary Clinton, a temperamental, foul-mouth woman with no regard for her protective detail. Having said that, the biggest void in the book was Kessler's skimming over the whole Lewinsky affair. One has to believe that the author is protecting people here since no woman could get to any president without the acquiescence of the Secret Service. As I have said before, when a president engages in extra-marital activity, the USSS is by its very nature going to be compromised. Undoubtedly the Secret Service was. Yet that whole episode as well as Bill Clinton's other dalliances, got scarce mention in the book.

I cannot comment on the allegations of mismanagement in the upper levels of the Secret Service, but federal law enforcement agencies tend to do a good job at the working level while hqs in Washington is often a hindrance due to the entrenched bureaucracy. It happens even though street agents rise through promotion into managerial positions. As often happens, the ability to be a good agent or cop does not automatically translate into having good managerial skills even though the person involved knows what the street agent or cop has to deal with. Once a supervisor gets into the Washington bureaucracy, it's like the saying goes, he or she has a frontal lobotomy. DEA was no different.

Kessler advocates for having an outside director come in and change things around as opposed to recent Secret Service practice of having directors who rose through the ranks. I don't know if this is the answer. Yes, an outside director can be one with proven managerial skills, but not always.

DEA has had many outside directors (administrators) appointed with mixed results. The current administrator is Michelle Leonhart, who came up from the position of street agent and rose through management. While aware of her name when I was an agent, I never met her. As I recall, she had a good reputation as an agent. Being 15 years retired, I don't keep up much with the agency, and thus, I don't know how she has been as an administrator. Undoubtedly the worst administrator DEA had when I was an agent was Thomas Constantine during the 1990s. Constantine came to DEA from the New York State Police and brought with him an inherent dislike of federal law enforcement. He reportedly referred to his subordinates in DEA as "you feds". The story goes that when he left the NY State Police to take over DEA, his agency held a farewell party. Constantine was not invited. Morale in DEA under Constantine was at an all-time low. The agents knew that he did not like us, respect us or care about us.

Kessler's most serious charge is that the Secret Service bureaucracy has refused to push for additional agents and resources-even cutting back on the use of magnetometers when crowds become too large. The agents are portrayed as badly overworked and frustrated to the point that many are leaving because they have no personal lives. I cannot speak to all that not having been a Secret Service agent. I should note that Kessler has been criticized in previous books for his presentation of allegations against certain other agencies. If true, however, this is something that Congress should take a look at before we experience some sort of tragedy that might have been prevented with adequate resources.