Peter Baker is perplexed. He wonders why Republicans, especially those who have been President Barack Obama’s sharpest critics, are concerned about the security lapses with the Secret Service.
He writes at the New York Times:
President Obama must be touched by all the concern Republicans are showing him these days. As Congress examines security breaches at the White House, even opposition lawmakers who have spent the last six years fighting his every initiative have expressed deep worry for his security.
“The American people want to know: Is the president safe?” Representative Darrell Issa of California, the Republican committee chairman who has made it his mission to investigate all sorts of Obama administration missteps, solemnly intoned as he opened a hearing into the lapses on Tuesday.
Yet it would not be all that surprising if Mr. Obama were a little wary of all the professed sympathy. Although the target of the legislative scrutiny is the Secret Service, not the president, the furor over security has left the White House on the defensive.
Is it really that hard to comprehend that conservatives and Republicans don’t want to see their President murdered? Opposing President Obama politically is not the same as wanting him dead. We want to see our President well protected because we are Americans. We are patriots. It harms America when harm is done to our President. Exploits in security have the President all the more a terrorist target and that is something none of us want to see happen.
Not to mention, that as a Christian, I am called to pray for the President (1 Timothy 2:1-4) and give the office due respect (1 Peter 2:17) as we are subject to our government as God established it (Romans 13:1).
Just because some liberals wished President George W. Bush dead doesn’t mean we have a right to return the favor. President Obama’s term will end and we will have another election. This is where we battle it out. When there is a threat to our President all Americans should come together.
Also, as Matt Lewis astutely pointed out at The Daily Caller, problems plaguing the Secret Service could impact future administrations.
It looks like a good first step was taken with Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigning today. There obviously needs to be some institutional changes made in order to make certain the Secret Service is the apex of law enforcement like it once was. Perhaps overhauling the negative culture that seems to have taken root with the agency’s move to the Department of Homeland Security by moving it back to the Treasury Department?
Shane Vander Hart
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