Nov 24 2008
Does the President Have Less Right to Question his Potential Staff than the FBI?
I don’t think so! After all, aren’t the FBI and the President supposed to be ensuring the same thing, namely the safety of the USA and its citizens?
We live in a world where the public are only a click away. Some obscure person in the political arena may well keep some dirty little secrets hidden away. Once plucked out of obscurity and placed in the public eye, you can bet that those secrets will find their way to the media’s hands. If this happens right after Obama officially takes office, the new administration is going to have to move quickly to fight media fires instead of concentrating of the main issues of running the country.
I don’t like the “Big Brother” approach, but I think that when it comes to delving into the background of the people who are going to be responsible for national security, the US economy and representing the US on the international stage then I don’t think the people wanting these jobs should mind being thoroughly vetted. If they’ve got something they’d rather not have public knowledge then it’s better they walk away now. If not, they can be sure that their secret sexual liaisons, illegal immigrant workers and shady stock exchange deals will be revealed by the media - tradition or social - before the end of the first year of Obama’s Presidency!
Perhaps this is the first time a President elect has asked top players to complete such an intrusive questionnaire, but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. I think it just means that we’re living in a time when public people have little or no privacy and the President needs to know what potential fires there are waiting for him before he makes appointments where such things matter.
