I wish I could say “I told you so,” but I didn’t, exactly. The last time Ethics Alarms discussed Sam Brinton, Energy Department’s chief of nuclear waste disposal, it was in an Ethics Quiz that asked, “Is it competent and responsible for someone like Sam to hold an executive position of trust in a Cabinet Department?” To this I added,
“Within this quiz are several other questions, like “Should an individual representing the administration, the Energy Department and the U.S. government be publicizing his kinky ways?” and “Is the judgment of an official who behaves in pubic like Sam inherently questionable?” and “Is there a Simulated Sex with Puppies Deputy Assistant Secretary Principle?”
Yes, one of Sam’s passions is simulated sex with puppies. But he’s just pretending.
I said I would reveal my answers after the commentariat weighed in, but I never did. Now comes the news that Brinton, who was hired by the administration in February, was filmed allegedly stealing a woman’s roller bag at the airport’s baggage claim area by security cameras on Sept. 16, according to a criminal complaint filed on Oct. 27. Security footage also showed Brinton taking the woman’s luggage from the baggage carousel and then removing the tags before leaving the scene at a “quick pace,” according to the complaint. Brinton initially told police that be grabbed the bag and no clothes or objects had been removed. Later he changed his story. The contents of the bag, valued at $2000, have not been found.
That didn’t take long, did it? I’m ready to give my answers to those questions above now, and they haven’t changed since September: no, no, yes, and yes.
The Biden administration has placed pandering to various Democratic constituencies above the public interest and doing its job, and this is one of the more flagrant examples ( Karine Jean-Pierre is another.) Brinton’s private life and sexual fetishes don’t mean that he isn’t intelligent or qualified for his job. His obsession with flaunting his non-conforming ways, however, to the likely detriment of public trust, does suggest a lack of professionalism, excessive narcissism, and quite possibly mental illness. Let’s put it this way: if I have an important job to fill and two candidates of relatively equal skills and experience, I will choose the individual who does not go out of his way to be seen like this…
Is that unfair? No, that’s responsible management. There is good reason to question the judgment of a job candidate who publicizes his proclivities to, among other kinks, engage in “pup-play”and other forms of animal role-playing and sexual fetishes such as tying up a sexual partner and eating a meal on him while watching “Star Trek.” There is good reason to doubt such an individual’s seriousness and trustworthiness.
Brinton wasn’t necessarily going to do something government employees must never do, but nobody should be surprised that he did.
The Energy Department says Brinton is on leave and is not currently performing any duties. Meanwhile, I can’t find any mainstream news source that isn’t conservative in its tilt like Fox or the New York Post reporting this story. Since Sam is “nonbinary” and “genderfluid, with his pronouns being “they and them,” Reporting the news in Sam’s case would just be homophobic, or transphobic, or something. Simulated sex with men dressed as dogs phobic, maybe.
Ethics Alarms 
The Daily Mail has some good exposition of this guy’s huminahumming. He story changed repeatedly, and lamely.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11481793/Bidens-non-binary-nuclear-waste-guru-claims-accidentally-picked-2-325-bag-airport.html
(I tried to post the link, but WordPress spammed it.)
I’m surprised his defense hasn’t been, “But the bag is FABULOUS! It’s a Vera Bradley!”
I’m not yet sure I would conclude that Sam Brinton has embarrassed the Biden Administration.
If my teeth were detachable, I’d have spit them out.
What OB said.
Ouch.
Here’s a bit more from the Alphanews report:
Brandon’s crack team sure knows how to pick ’em!
https://alphanews.org/controversial-energy-official-charged-with-stealing-womans-luggage-at-msp/
“Worried that people would think he “stole the bag”….”
Gee, why would people think that the man who stole the bag stole the bag? Airports are full of unusual people. I probably wouldn’t glance twice at a man in a dress, but I sure would have noticed someone pulling the tag off the suitcase. Tags stay on mine until I’m packing for the next flight, but mostly because I’m too lazy to bother with it before then.
It’s worse than Biden’s team not knowing how to pick employees. He wasn’t appointed, he was hired. The problem won’t be fixed by electing a different president.
You think a hiring staff member in a say, Trump, administration would have hired a FrootLoop like this for even a janitorial position ? I think not. Elections matter.
Elections matter, but I think it will take more than just one to fix the problems.
A handbag? a handbag?
Wait, you’re surprised THAT guy was carrying a handbag? I’m surprised he didn’t stick it in his snood.
No, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to deploy a line from an Oscar Wilde play in a real life application, particularly since I thought people here would get it.
But a handbag is not a proper mother!
Is he really nonbinary if he only goes for female dogs?
If only there had been some kind of warning signs or past behavior that could have indicated that he might have flawed decision-making skills or poor impulse control…
I always considered Sam Brinton to be a perfect addition to the joe biden traveling circus and freak show. The theatre of the bizarre.
It’s both dangerous and stupid to make your private life public. This is worse than the naked teacher principle, this is the criminal teacher principle. Actually it’s the naked criminal who grinds your face in the fact that he is what he is and dares you to do something about it because you can’t.
You know who grinds people’s faces in the fact that they can’t do a damn thing? Bullies, that’s who. This is no different than the 12-year-old slightly bigger than his classmates who shoves whichever one of them is unlucky enough to draw his attention up against the locker and takes his lunch money, then sneers at him after lunch and asks him if he’s feeling hungry. Then again, Biden once boasted he would take Trump out behind the gym one day, it shouldn’t be surprising to this mentality has found its way elsewhere in his administration. Even Bill Clinton knew when someone in his administration had salon and needed to be let go, i.e. Jocelyn Elders, who talked openly about masturbation in speeches while saying she was going to make guns a public health issue. With Obama, Democratic administrations just stopped giving a damn about how anything looked.
This was a great perspective. Thanks!
But, Steve, are these appointments – this guy, Rachel L. Levine, Katrine Jean Pierre, and other DIE candidates – really the best and the brightest? Does Biden have any clue who these people are, other that HR box checkings? This guy is supposed to be handling disposal of nuclear waste policy and procedure, and sure, he may be wickedly smart with an IQ off the charts, but his behavior should be disqualifying for the position as it requires the perception of competence and good judgment. He brings those odd life choices into the White House and compromises the reputation of the Administration. Other nations – China, Brazil, Mexico, France, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Germany, et al – have to be looking at the US and wondering, “Huh. That’s the most powerful economic, military and political country on the planet? Let’s look somewhere else.” Is that the goal, to diminish US standing in the world, to make it just another “nation in the community of nations where all are the same”?
After watching the most recent climate change funding idiocy where the first world will be paying the developing world, China has to be sitting back thinking, “Wow. Mao was right – we don’t have to invade them. We’ll just bankrupt them and pick up the pieces from their insolvent ashes. This is easier than we thought.”
jvb
Rachel Levine might have a spot for him/her/it/them at Public Health.
I’ve always thought with that face and hair Levine would have made a great founding father. His visage is right out of the 18th Century.
Yeah, with a pair of small, round-lense glasses and a weird hat, it could do Franklin.
A good pictorial rehash of who/what this person is, though the use of “they” throughout an article where other people and groups are also mentioned is confusing.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10523529/Bidens-pick-nuclear-waste-job-Southern-Baptists-son-turned-drag-queen-Sister-Ray-Dee-OActive.html
It seems the demand for “respect” is a very one-sided proposition for those in Bizarro. World.
Apparently there were whistleblower allegations of political pressure and lack of qualifications in Brinton’s hiring.
https://www.exchangemonitor.com/doe-employee-alleges-hiring-malpractice-at-agencys-office-of-nuclear-energy/?printmode=1