A history-making President made history again today, appointing long time Secret Service official Julia Pierson to lead the nearly 150 year old agency and making Pierson the first female to ever direct of the elite security group.
The 53-year-old Pierson has spent her entire career with the Secret Service, starting as a special agent based out of Florida. Since the end of Bush's second term, Pierson has assisted the agency's previous director as his chief of staff.
Colleagues have heaped praise on Pierson, calling her both competent and passionate and noting that she played a key role in the $250 million modernization of the Secret Service's then-outdated information and systems-management infrastructure. Obama echoed these sentiments in his announcement of Pierson's promotion:
"Julia is eminently qualified to lead the agency that not only safeguards Americans at major events and secures our financial system, but also protects our leaders and our first families, including my own."
Republicans have recently torpedoed the nomination of Susan Rice, Obama's favored secretary of state hopeful; delayed the appointment of new defense secretary, Chuck Hagel; and pointlessly filibustered the appointment of new the treasury secretary, Jack Lew. If Republicans were hoping to repeat their obstructionism with Pierson, they're out of luck as the Secret Service position does not require senatorial consent.
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