In a revelation that surely won’t be pure red meat for political commentators for the next 48 hours, the Associated Press reports a fired Secret Service supervisor joked on Facebook about scoping out former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. David Randall Chaney, forced to retire by the agency earlier this week in connection with an ongoing probe into a prostitution scandal, was part of Mrs. Palin’s Secret Service detail during the 2008 presidential campaign. In January 2009, Mr. Chaney, age 48, wrote the following in a comment on a Facebook (META) photo of him accompanying Mrs. Palin: “I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?”
Informed by Fox News of the comment, the former Alaska governor said, “Well check this out, buddy–you’re fired.” Mrs. Palin also termed the Secret Service/Colombian prostitution scandal as being symptomatic of “government run amok.”
The Washington Post, which first reported Mr. Chaney’s comment, also noted a colorful detail outside Mr. Chaney’s residence that had no relation to the former agent’s Facebook comment save possibly indicating his own political sentiments:
Attempts to reach both men were unsuccessful. Calls made to Chaney’s home and cellphone and to Stokes’s home were not returned. No one answered the door when a reporter visited Chaney’s home in Northern Virginia. Parked outside was a silver Ford pickup truck, bearing stickers with a colorful outline of Texas, Chaney’s home state, and the mantra “SECEDE.”
The Post went further in-depth on the embarrassing Facebook thread, relating banter between Mr. Chaney and a friend who jokingly asked if Mrs. Palin was wearing a button bearing Mr. Chaney’s likeness. In response, Mr. Chaney wrote, “well if it was could you blame her, anything to satisfy a stalker.”
The Colombian prostitution scandal, which occurred during President Obama’s recent weekend trip to a summit in Cartagena, has embroiled members of the Secret Service and the military. So far 3 Secret Service staff have either quit, gone into forced retirement or been fired. There will likely be more firings to come.
