An absurd level of presidential security

Published April 17, 2006 at midnight

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When Harry Truman would leave the White House complex for a brisk walk around the neighborhood, he was accompanied by a handful of Secret Service agents. Times have changed.

One day last week, President Bush left the White House to visit a nearby community college for "A Conversation" on prescription-drug benefits. It was the usual presidential motorcade - motorcycles, police cars, multiple limos, Secret Service SUVs, staff vans, a helicopter overhead, a detail to block off the cross street.

According to Joseph Curl of The Washington Times, a police boat patrolled the bridge the motorcade crossed, snipers were atop the buildings en route and the police and Secret Service shut down parts of two interstates, the Beltway and I-66.

The capital's traffic is bad enough as it is, and this immobilized thousands of hapless motorists. Curl quoted a local radio traffic reporter as saying, "Everything is at a staaaaandstill." It took the president 20 minutes to get to his destination. The "Conversation" lasted 37 minutes and then the process reversed itself .

Think of the missed appointments and inconvenience for all those poor people stuck in traffic - people, theoretically in this republic, who are the president's equals.

Does legitimate security really require this entire panoply? Presidential security has been getting more elaborate for decades but it has now achieved an incomprehensible magnitude.

This was not a motorcade. It was an imperial procession.

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