Senator Lieberman isn't discerning the arrival of the White House Staff in this instance.

The interview with Ralph Basham has revealed other occurrences, even under his time as Director.  The idea this has never happened before is bizarre.  The reason these things 'show up' under the Obama Administration is because of the TRANSPARENCY of this President.  This level of transparency has never been realized by the people of the USA. 

Example: How long did the Office of Mining and Mineral Management get away with corruption?

...Of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, (click here) Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said it best on Tuesday: “In the Bush administration, these were the guys that were having sex orgies and pot parties and weren’t showing up for work.”

As the government agency that regulates offshore drilling, MMS is already under scrutiny for its handling of the rig that exploded and caused the oil spill. It’s not yet clear whether there were missteps by the agency, though theWashington Post reported earlier this week that MMS’ environmental impact assessments of the Deepwater Horizon rig had not considered the possibility of a major spill....

Even though I find it interesting Mr. Basham's redirection of the fact this occurrence is not exclusively new to the Secret Service, he does point out an interesting FACT. This happened prior to the arrival of the President and his staff to Columbia. The question is, do we sincerely have to spend time and money on questioning people that were not even in the country at the time and obviously not involved with 'someone's idea of a good time?'

...Mister Basham, let me ask you-- (click here) I mean the question people are asking, is this just some sort of an anomaly or is this thing has been going on all the time? Did you have these kind of problems with your agents when you were there?

RALPH BASHAM (Former Director, U.S. Secret Service/Command Consulting Group): Bob, absolutely not. And-- and I will tell you, absolutely, that this is an aberration. This is not the character of the men and women who serve every day in the Secret Service. And-- and, obviously, this is a huge story, it's a huge issue, because this sort of thing does not happen in the Secret Service. And-- and I could answer Senator-- I think I can say to Senator Lieberman that-- that I don't believe in the past these types of things have happened. And they certainly didn't happen on my watch, and I spent over three decades in this organization. And I can tell you this is not what that organization is like.

BOB SCHIEFFER: So-- but you had-- you know, supervisors involved here. These weren't rookies. These were supervisors who, obviously, got to be supervisors-- some of that time they must have in the service you were the director. You're-- you're saying that there was never any indication of anything like this when you were there?

RALPH BASHAM: Well, Bob, that's not to say that-- that we did not have situations where agents, officers, got themselves into inappropriate situations and had to be brought back. And-- and in some cases, the di-- discipline went all the way to-- to re-- removing them from-- from the service. But-- but to this magnitude, absolutely not. And-- and-- and-- and what makes it even more of-- of an issue is the fact that it was done prior to the President's arrival, which could have compromised the-- the-- the-- the trip and the safety of the President. But-- but, but Mark Sullivan took immediate and decisive action just as Senator Lieberman said, removed those agents from Cartagena, and did immediate investigation to check-- to determine whether or not the President's security had been-- been compromised. He recognized-- they could not. I'm sorry....


And I would think of the President had first hand knowledge of the events of the 'Merry of the Secret Service,' he would not have needed a sit-down with Director Sullivan.


On Friday, Secret Service director Mark Sullivan  (click here) finally sat down with President Obama to discuss his agency's widely-publicized bad behavior in Cartagena, Colombia, which has so far resulted in the departures (or firings) of six agents, with five others being placed on administrative leave. (One employee has been cleared of misconduct.) In addition to the Secret Service investigation, the Pentagon is now investigating 11 members of the U.S. military, including those serving with the 7th Special Forces Group, the Marines, the Navy, and the Air Force....


No money is too much, no committee time to great to score politically.