Because we've always done it that way.' During my 12-year tenure as a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, I heard those words all too often. The agency, in my experience, has an entrenched management culture resistant to change.
Talk is cheap if it doesn't motivate action.
Assessing any possible threat is one thing, but pressing into a full investigation without facts of a crime or national security threat violates standard procedure.
The big umbrella issue is, do I make a bigger difference on the outside of political process or on the inside?
The mission of the Secret Service (to keep the president of the United States safe and secure) is, by its very nature, pivotal to the proper functioning of the country, and any failure to accomplish this mission has the potential to cause an immediate international crisis.
I don't live like liberals in a 5,000 square foot mansion.