National insecurity

I am so glad the Department of Homeland Security has learned its lesson from Hurricane Katrina and continues to do a stellar job protecting our country (not!). Straight from the the files of 'Yes, it can actually get worse' we have the story of a middle-aged pervert who is now in jail, charged in Florida with 23 counts of using a computer to seduce a child and transmission of harmful material to a minor. It turns out this "girl" was an FBI agent. This sadly happens every day, but this particular pervert was Brian Doyle, the press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

As unbelieve as his actions are, what is more stupifying about this incident is that Doyle gave the internet decoy his real name, job title, location and work phone number. Doyle did everything but place a bumper sticker on his Lexus luxury liner that says 'lurking pedophile'. He must have thought there was nothing wrong with his behavior and that an underage girl would be super impressed with his Washington credentials. You would think that someone who works with the press would realize that submitting every bit of personal information about yourself, save social security number, might have some ramifications down the road. Michael Brown's Arabian horse association job before he signed on with this department makes him look positively qualified in comparison.

It turns out Doyle has a history of online perversions. He got in trouble at his former job at Time magazine for downloading pornographic pictures. Before this story gets swept under the rug and trumped by the next revelation out of our nation's capitol, the simple facts are that some people in Washington, regardless of party affiliation, think they can do whatever they want and expect to get away with it. Unlike previous D.C. sex scandals, Doyle's crimes involve innocent parties. Had he not gotten caught (and been such a total idiot in doing so) he would continue on his perv path like trolling for children online was just normal every day behavior for a wealthy successful man in his fifties with a high-level Pentagon job.

What's next? Who knows. With the current brain trust at the capitol, anything goes.



Here is the CNN story.


And here is an excellent column by Doyle's former friend, Amy Dickinson, at The Chicago Tribune.