As if the General Services Administration flap wasn't bad enough -- an $ 820,000 conference/party in Las Vegas -- now the Secret Service prostitution scandal is giving headaches to the Obama administration.
Neither Obama not has top aides have been implicated, but both of those stories are generating the kinds of questions that no administration wants to answer this close to a re-election bid.
Administration aides said the appropriate officials responded quickly in both cases.
"The President believes that everyone who serves the American people by working for this government needs to hold themselves to the highest standards of public service," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Carney also said "there's no point in comparing the singular incidents of one agency to another, but that principle is one he made clear during the campaign that he would bring to the office."
While Congress holds GSA hearings, Obama and aides await the results of the Secret Service investigation into allegations that security personnel purchased prostitute just before the president's recent trip to Colombia.
During the weekend visit to the Summit of the Americas, Obama said he has faith in the Secret Service, but he will be "angry" if the allegations are proved true.
"We're representing t he people of the United States," Obama said. "And when we travel to another country, I expect us to observe the highest standards because we're not just representing ourselves, we're here on behalf of our people. And that means that we conduct ourselves with the utmost dignity and probity. And obviously what's been reported doesn't match up with those standards."
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