Treasury Department officials “have been cited for soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules and accepting gifts from corporate executives,” The Hill reports.

“The revelations of unethical behavior at Treasury are detailed in little-noticed documents posted this month on governmentattic.org, which publishes agency responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.”

“While it is not uncommon for departments within the executive branch to have personnel issues, it is unusual for these types of documents to become public. They provide a rare glimpse of internal probes within the Treasury Department, exposing different episodes of misconduct.”

Bloomberg looks at pay raises and the top earners on the White House payroll.

Jon Stewart takes President Obama to task for asserting executive privilege on documents requested by Congress related to the mismanaged program known as “Fast and Furious.”

[Read more…]

With Commerce Secretary John Bryson’s resignation this week, a Smart Politics review of presidential cabinet data finds that President Obama currently ranks tied for fourth of the 23 administrations since FDR’s first term for the lowest rate of department head departures.

John Bryson “announced his resignation as President Obama’s commerce secretary on Thursday following an episode in which he had a seizure and was involved in a sequence of automobile accidents,” the New York Times reports.

“Bryson offered no further information about his health or the status of the legal case following the episode earlier this month.”

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R), who once flirted with the idea President Obama wasn’t born in the United States, now says he thinks the president lied about being born in Kenya in order to get into college.

Said Bennett: “Now, I know there’s a lot of people that are very skeptical as to whether he was born in Hawaii. Personally I believe that he was. I actually believe he was fibbing about being born in Kenya when he was trying to get into college and doing things like writing a book and on and on and on.”

Bennett also said he thinks Obama has spent as much as two million of dollars to cover it up.

[Read more…]

President Obama “invoked executive privilege to withhold from a Congressional oversight committee some documents and communications among his advisers regarding the failed gun enforcement operation known as ‘Fast and Furious,’ in which weapons purchased in the United States were allowed to cross into Mexico,” the New York Times reports.

It was the first time since Obama took office that he has asserted the privilege.

Washington Post: “The president’s decision to withhold the documents and the House
panel’s anticipated contempt citation quickly intensified a
long-simmering feud between the White House and Republican lawmakers and
set up a clash between over the extent of presidential power that may
take months to resolve.”

Coming soon: The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty.

Daily Beast: “The book covers in nitty-gritty detail the particulars of how presidents raise money, how the White House has been used as a political organ (both officially and unofficially), and how the marriage of policy and politics in the Oval Office affects our democracy.”

“I have no interest in politics. Never have. Never will.”

— First Lady Michelle Obama, on The View, when asked if she would ever run for office.

The Daily Beast runs excerpts from a new book, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, which shows President Obama wasn’t always “the commander in chief who never flinches” as the White House likes to portray.

BuzzFeed compiles excerpts from Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss that deal with the “elaborate drug culture” surrounding Barack Obama when he attended Punahou School in Honolulu and Occidental College in Los Angeles.

The bottom line: “He inhaled. A lot.”

CBS News has learned that three Drug Enforcement Administration agents are under investigation for hiring prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia.

“The alleged incident happened at the same time as the Secret Service agents were in Colombia for President Obama’s visit in mid April, but is separate from the ongoing Secret Service investigation.”

The U.S. Secret Service imposed new rules “aimed at tightening oversight of its employees on international trips in the wake of the Colombia prostitution scandal — banning staff members from bringing foreigners into their hotel rooms, drinking alcohol within 10 hours of duty and visiting “non-reputable establishments,” the Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, CBS News reports the agency is now looking into reports “that Secret Service personnel traveling in 2009 with former President Clinton partied at strip clubs on a visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and that agents and White House staffers went to a Moscow night club known for its sexually charged atmosphere prior to Mr. Clinton’s trip to Russia in 2000.”

“This is the biggest job in the world and I’ve never seen a president make it smaller.”

— House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), quoted by NBC News.

KIRO-TV reports on a new Secret Service scandal at a strip club that occurred prior to President Obama’s trip to El Salvador in March of 2011.

“This source witnessed the majority of the men drinking heavily at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service ‘advance-team’ members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash. Although our source says he told the agents it was a ‘really bad idea’ to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they ‘did this all the time’ and ‘not to worry about it.’ Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club.”

The New York Times looks at President Obama’s shift from a senator who criticized George W. Bush’s use of executive power to a president who increasingly uses those same powers.

“Branding its unilateral efforts ‘We Can’t Wait,’ a slogan that aides said Mr. Obama coined at that strategy meeting, the White House has rolled out dozens of new policies — on creating jobs for veterans, preventing drug shortages, raising fuel economy standards, curbing domestic violence and more. Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers… Aides say many more such moves are coming.”

“Mr. Obama’s increasingly assertive use of executive action could foreshadow pitched battles over the separation of powers in his second term, should he win and Republicans consolidate their power in Congress.”

David Chaney, one of the Secret Service supervisors ousted from the agency this week for their involvement in the Colombia prostitution scandal, “made light of his official protective work on his Facebook page, joking about a picture of himself standing watch behind Sarah Palin,” the Washington Post reports.

Wrote Chaney: “I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?”

Palin responded on Fox News: “Well check this out, bodyguard — you’re fired. And I hope his wife sends him to the doghouse. As long as he’s not eating the dog, along with his former boss.”

First Read: “In American politics, there are actual problems and perceived problems. And when it comes to that exorbitant GSA trip to Las Vegas or the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Colombia, those are perceived problems — that somehow the government isn’t working and a handful of employees aren’t taking their jobs seriously. The question, in this election year, is whether that perception hurts the guy running the government.”

“Make no mistake: These scandals aren’t coming from the Obama White House or from the aides working closest with the president… But the attention on these GSA and Secret Service stories only sullies the government’s reputation. Bottom line: The government can’t afford another one to surface again anytime soon, and neither can the party that has come to represent the idea that government is at least part of the solution to collective problems — the Democrats.”