Thank me for my integrity? I resent that.

Funny, just two days after my blog about how the baseball cheaters bring everyone under suspicion, the LA Times runs a front page article about Thomas Fingar, who is leading the intelligence community’s battle back to credibility (“Political clashes underline limits to intelligence reform,” LA Times, May 15, p.1)

Fingar ia a real hero of the civil service: he headed off the Administration’s seeming rush toward war with Iran by his fiercely independent intelligence conclusion that Iran has stopped their development of nuclear weapons. He gets no praise from hard-liners, but has repeatedly been thanked for his integrity by members of Congressional committees he has testified to.

His reaction? “I began to resent this. Treating integrity and professionalism as if it is an unusual and courageous act. I frankly was dismayed."

Just as in baseball, cheaters and liars in government have brought the honest people under a cloud. It’ll take a serious dose of ethics by the new Administration to remove the cloud.