It seems an intruder made it onto the White House grounds and through an unlocked front door the other day.  The Secret Service didn’t unleash the guard dogs on him, for reasons unknown.  And why the front door was unlocked, no one knows yet—although it is a little humorous.  So what is the plan of action for the Secret Service?  To be more vigilant in the future?

No, as in many instances of bureaucratic overreaction, possibly out of fear that they appear not to be “doing something,” the new plan is to block off more areas close to the White House, to essentially move the perimeter out farther, and to (apparently) begin searches of people’s bags outside the White House grounds.  I have a great solution, in the grand tradition of Jonathan Swift and Will Rodgers.  Let’s just move everyone out of DC and block off the entire city from outside access.  That will certainly stop any threats.

Is that a wee bit facetious?  Possibly.  But in all seriousness, what kind of solution is the one proposed by the Secret Service?  It seems utterly useless for someone determined to do mischief.  And it is making a mountain out of a molehill, when just doing their job right would have probably sufficed.  But no, I guess that is too much to ask.  Our bureaucratic agencies are becoming so big and out of touch that they simply cannot engage in simple and efficient responses anymore.

Of course this one looked very bad in the press.  So it was probably fear of more bad publicity that drove this latest proposal.  But we have seen this mindset before , like every time the Transportation Safety Agency and Homeland Security come up with a  new scheme for supposedly protecting us from terrorists.  All too many of those schemes actually do little or nothing for better security, but they certainly manage to make flying (maybe soon taking the train) more inconvenient.  But again, this is part and parcel of the perverse incentives created within large and/or unaccountable bureaucracies.

One more little observation.  If the office of the President had not been “imperialized” in recent decades—roughly since President Roosevelt—no one would care all that much about entering over the fence.  Heck, they could probably walk right in the front gate and in the front door, like we did when I was a child visiting the White House in 1964.  Where there is little power there is little attraction.  And it makes for a quieter life too.