My must read of the day is "Julia Pierson, Secret Service Director, Resigns Under Pressure About Breaches," in the New York Times:
For Ms. Pierson, the resignation ended a tumultuous two weeks that started when Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, an Iraq war veteran, evaded capture as he jumped the White House fence, ran across the North Lawn, barged through the unlocked door of the North Portico and knocked down an agent as he sprinted through the Entrance Hall to the Cross Hall to the East Room, the site of presidential news conferences and other formal events. […]
Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, commended Ms. Pierson on Wednesday for stepping down, saying the move was in the best interest of the Secret Service and the president. But he said more change was necessary, including, possibly, more resignations.
"I don’t want us, after she’s left, to say to ourselves that everything is resolved," Mr. Cummings said. "Clearly there was a culture there that was not healthy."
It's odd that anytime someone resigns from an influential post after failing to do their job, there's a reflexive tendency to commend them for resigning. Sometimes I’m on board with that, but in this case I can’t see the sense in complimenting Pierson for stepping aside.
It's fair to acknowledge that she served her country dutifully for over 30 years, and probably did a great job as an agent, but there's nothing commendable in this resignation.
Pierson didn’t admit to anything. She only "took responsibility" for failures after someone else caught and announced them. The public was not told Gonzalez made it to the East Room until the Washington Post reported it. The president and the White House staff were not told that Obama stood in an elevator with a security guard, who had a criminal record and a gun, until Pierson learned that it would be coming out in the press—then the White House was told minutes before the report was released in the Washington Examiner.
Pierson accepted responsibility for mistakes only when she was forced to. It seems that she never did it on her own accord. That’s not admirable. Her resignation was not the "right thing" to do it was just the logical thing. Thank her for serving the country for decades, but let’s not act like her resignation is a "testament to her professionalism and her character" or one that deserves praise. She resigned because she got caught.