Baskin-Robbins Journalism

Some of you may recall that about two weeks back, the Washington Post finally did a little investigative reporting -- we thought they'd forgotten how -- and discovered a cover-up in the investigation into the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia.

Lest you have forgotten, a White House advance team member apparently dallied with a prostitute, a foreign national, prior to the president's visit there.  A number of Secret Service agents, who "enjoyed" similar dalliances, were relieved of their jobs, and the White House (in Washington, buildings apparently can talk) sternly denied that anyone associated with the White House had anything to do with it.  They even conducted a couple "investigations", including through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), from which they concluded that only the Secret Service men were involved.

Well, not so fast.  The Post blew that up, writing in their piece, "The lead investigator later told Senate staffers that he felt pressure from his superiors in the office of Charles K. Edwards, who was then the acting inspector general [inside DHS], to withhold evidence — and that, in the heat of an election year, decisions were being made with political considerations in mind.  “We were directed at the time . . . to delay the report of the investigation until after the 2012 election,” David Nieland, the lead investigator on the Colombia case for the DHS inspector general’s office, told Senate staffers, according to three people with knowledge of his statement."  [Post, 9 October 2014]

In other words, the president tried to save his reelection chances by disassociating himself from the scandal, and to do so, his own DHS Secretary (Janet Napolitano) and White House counsel (Kathryn Ruemmler) apparently conspired to suppress the information about the staffer's involvement until the election was over.  They are lucky to be Democrats in a country with a slavish left-leaning media.  The young man who engaged the prostitute is now serving his president in the Office of Global Women's Issues, a position for which he seems supremely qualified.

But that's not the issue for today.  May I ask, dear reader, has anyone seen a hint, or smelled a whiff of follow-up on this scandal, one that certainly is as corrupt as Watergate?  Has the Post done anything since?

Does anyone even care?

After a pleasant diversion into actual investigating, the Post apparently has descended back into Baskin-Robbins journalism, that sad practice by which there is a flavor of the week, never to be offered again.  Was there any testimony under oath about this affair?  Did anyone commit perjury or, less illegal but more corrupt, lie to the American People ourselves?

Who knows?  The Post has gone on to bigger and better things, trying to figure out what the White House wants it to say about the Ebola virus, and who will quarterback the Redskins next.  Woodward and Bernstein are still around, aren't they?  Couldn't someone write a series on this?

Kathryn Ruemmler, the White House counsel mentioned above, is apparently Obama's choice to nominate to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General.  If he has those plans, wouldn't the readership of the Post like for their reporters to rip this story apart, and help the public know if it's getting another Attorney General whose contempt for law enforcement trumps their commitment to obedience to all the law.  Surely even the Democrats in the Senate would like to know if they have to hold their noses before voting for her.

I'd just be happy if the Post would embrace its discovery of the scandal and stay with it longer than a day.  I like interesting flavors of ice cream, too, but I'd like to think that just because the Flavor of the Week has been replaced, doesn't mean I lost interest in it.

Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton