Labor Secretary's security detail officer placed on leave amid romantic-relationship investigation.

Folks. Folks. I am going to keep this one short because I don’t want to do the kind of column where a man on a website talks about somebody else’s love life. That’s not what this is. What this is, is the United States Secretary of Labor’s protective detail, somebody whose actual federal job is to walk in front of and behind the Cabinet officer with a gun, has been placed on administrative leave on Friday over an internal complaint alleging the Cabinet officer pursued a romantic relationship with him.

I have seen this movie. I have seen this movie at the Trop. Not with Cabinet officers. With pit bosses and dealers. With shift managers and cocktail waitresses. The pattern every time: the higher rank starts the thing, the lower rank does not have a real no to give back, the lower rank is the one whose job goes away when somebody finally writes the report.

The thing that’s going to come out of this story, eventually, three months from now in April, is that the Secretary will resign. That part you’ll see. The thing that I’m watching for now, in January, in real time, is that the security officer is the one already on leave. Not the Secretary. The lower rank goes first. The higher rank goes later. The pattern every time.

You ever notice how the country has rules about Cabinet officers having ethics agreements about stocks they own, and the rules about Cabinet officers having relationships with their own security details are mostly we’ll see. The stocks are easier to write a rule about. People are harder. That’s the gap. People fall in the gap.

I don’t take pleasure in this one. I’m noting it. The press will note it again in April. The detail officer’s name is, as of the day this is written, not in the public record. The Secretary’s name is. That distinction is the trick. Famous people get their version of the story told. Their security details get placed on leave Friday.

I’m arguing with the television. The television hasn’t gotten to the resignation yet. It’s still on the leave.