Bush Daughters Kept Secret Service Protection

(AP)

Four days before leaving office, President Bush signed a directive authorizing the Secret Service to provide a period of extended protection for his daughters Jenna and Barbara.

Last week, the Service mistakenly said that President Obama had signed an Executive Order on behalf of his predecessor's daughters.

Under the law, the adult children of an American President lose their Secret Service protection when their father leaves office.

But following the lead of Bill Clinton, who authorized an extended period of coverage for daughter Chelsea, Mr. Bush made the same provision for his daughters. He signed a presidential directive on January 16, 2009. The Secret Service requested that the length of the additional protection not be disclosed.

A Secret Service spokesman admits getting it wrong last week when he told the Washington Post that Mr. Obama signed an Executive Order authorizing extended protection for the Bush daughters.

The issue came up when it was learned that a van used by the Secret Service detail assigned to Jenna, had been towed by Baltimore Police because it had accumulated six unpaid parking tickets.

CBS News has learned that the Secret Service also provided about a month's additional protection to former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

By law, former President Bush receives government protection for ten years. Former Vice President Dick Cheney gets it for six months after leaving office.

Note: CBS News state department reporter Charles Wolfson reports that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also received some extended protection from the State Department's bureau of diplomatic security after she left office. It is not known how long the protection lasted or if it still in effect. However, it should be noted that this is not unprecedented as former Secretary of State Madeline Albright also received similar extended protection for approximately six months after she left office.

---

(CBS)

Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

[jvitelli120]

So where was Mark's story when Clinton was doing the same thing for Chelsea?

[karengreen83]

Perhaps he would not have written this story had there not been an error in the Secret Service Report. You seem to be quick to,jump to conclusions without facts.

[commonsens]

Surely the commenter is joking about psycho liberals with guns - no one could be that delusional. It seems to me that the Bush family is wealthy enough to pay for extra protection for their daughters if they wish, without the entire country paying for it.

[wonkguy]

"The issue came up when it was learned that a van used by the Secret Service detail assigned to Jenna, had been towed by Baltimore Police because it had accumulated six unpaid parking tickets."

And Bush wanted to extend this kind of security? Did they learn that trick in Spy School?

[Idiosync]

Ha! they all waste our money. Politicians = Criminals, all politicians.

[Idiosync]

Cheney should be in jail anyway. He'll get all the protection he needs in there. I think his daughter is in jeopardy though. If he needs a heart transplant, she's toast. He'd remove it himself if he could and he wouldn't have to worry about rejecting it. Anyone who would do the things he's done to the American people can only view his family as spare parts.

[pass2you]

If anything happened to these brats, it would most likely be a set up by the bush family just like everything else they were involved with.

[pass2you]

What an absolute waste of taxpayers money by extending protection for these two spoiled little brats. No one cared about them when their criminal father was in office and no one with any brain cares about them now. This entire family has cost this nation so much more than we will ever know. They are nothing but parasites.

[sebring64]

The article is facutally incorrect. Mr. Knoller indicates that a former President receives Secret Service protection for 10 years. A former President receives it for life as does a former first lady, unless she becomes widowed and remarries.

[Tonker22]

Wrong, The President no long get's lifetime S.S. protection starting with Bush.

[dnsallday]

If the Secret Service is going to have a spokesman for the media, they should have one that doesn't lie. If he didn't lie and simply didn't know what he was talking about, I don't think is very good either.

[kansas1946]

Kind of ironic and hypocritical in a way, liberals insists they're against violence but have no problem doing violence.
Posted by ReallyMeanIt at 9:46 AM : Mar 31, 2009
********************************
Hmmm...yes, all of those "liberals" doing violence. Like Timothy McVey, those liberals shooting doctors that perform abortions, the nut that set the bomb off at the worlds fair in Atlanta.
I have never disliked an American president as much as I disliked Bush, but when I read the article, I thought that extended protection for his girls was probably a good idea. If it were my daughters, I would do the same thing. And by the way, I have never done a darn thing violent in my life.