Brian J. Doyle, the Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., was caught in an internet pedophile sting operation.

On March 12, 2006, Doyle contacted a 14-year-old girl whose profile was posted on the Internet, and initiated a sexually explicit conversation with her. The girl was actually an undercover Polk County Sheriff s Computer Crimes detective. Doyle knew that the girl was 14 years old, and he told her who he was and that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During future online chats, Doyle gave the undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl his office phone number and his government-issued cell phone number, so that they could have telephone conversations, in addition to their online chatting. Doyle used the Internet to send hard-core pornographic movie clips to the girl and used the AOL Instant Messenger chat service to have explicit sexual conversations with her. The investigation revealed that the phone numbers given to the detective were in fact Doyle s, and that the AOL account used was registered to Doyle. Doyle also sent photos of himself to the detective, which were not sexually explicit but did serve to further positively identify him.

On many occasions, Doyle instructed the victim, whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, to perform a sexual act while thinking of him, and described explicit and perverse sexual acts he wished to have with her, in addition to sending her numerous obscene .mpg files (digital movies). He also had sexually explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as a child on his office line and cell phone. He attempted to seduce the girl during their online chats, encouraging her to purchase a web cam so that she could send graphic images of herself to him, and promised her that he would likewise send nude photos of himself. Many of the conversations he initiated with the victim are too extraordinary and graphic for public release.

Doyle was arrested and spent last night in a county jail. And I’ll bet the scriptwriters for Law & Order: SVU are already working this little item into a future episode. Not to mention The Daily Show writers …

Here are some reactions from around the blogosphere.

This rightie blogger couldn’t comment without taking a swipe at liberals:

Glad they caught the idiot; he was a security risk as well as a pervert. As was Scott Ritter, not that any of the liberal blogs linking this story will make that connection.

I guess in Rightie World, being right about WMDs makes you a security risk. But Taylor Marsh makes some connections with a congressional hearing also held yesterday.

… when the news hit about a pedophile living and breathing inside our own Homeland Security department, I had a sort of meltdown. I put up the breaking story, then took a moment to think about it all. It’s not a comfortable subject to contemplate when you know the gory details.

Today, Justin Berry told a story of how he had given Bush’s Justice Department the names of over 1,500 people who he’d had sexual experiences with over the time he ran his web porn site. To this day, the Bush Justice Department has done NOTHING. That’s right, nothing. Joe Scarborough covered that tonight on his show. I didn’t watch it all, but he said he was going to give out the phone number for the Justice Department so parents could demand action. I hope they do because no one has been paying attention and this has been going on since 1997.

However, I simply cannot get my head around the fact that the Bush administration has taken no action at all.

“Taken no action at all” seems to be the standard Bushie operating procedure. Next we’ll hear that “no one could have anticipated” that some guy uploading hard-core porn on his DHS computer would have been a pervert.

John Aravosis notes Doyle’s past role in airport security.

Steve Soto:

At the deputy Press Secretary level, Doyle was likely an appointee of the Homeland Security Secretary. So either Tom Ridge or Michael Chertoff get the “credit” for this putz drawing a government check spinning the media on how great DHS is.

Egalia, Tennessee Guerilla Women:

No wonder Republicans don’t believe in evolution. Instead of evolving, they devolve from corruption and cronyism to nauseating creepiness.

Don’t they background check anybody in the Bush Administration? Oh, yeah, I remember, they check to make sure their cronies carry bibles.

Another rightie blames the Left:

First off, why would this guy be so stupid? As you read the article, you’ll learn that he gave the “14-year-old” (an undercover Polk County Detective) his personal phone numbers and name and position in government to this would-be little girl, and even sent photos (not sexually explicit) of himself to her. Again, if the allegations are true, how could someone working for DHS be so stupid, especially when the left says that Bush and Cheney are sitting in their offices spying on all of our calls trying to take away our rights…. don’t you think Doyle would have been more careful?

Yeah, if you’re going to be a pedophile, be a little more discreet about it, OK?

The Talking Dog comments on “restoring honor and integrity to the government.”

Captain Ed on “The Gang That Couldn’t Vet Straight“:

I’m not sure what’s going on at the Department of Homeland Security, but significant background checks certainly are not. The agency first slated to be run by Bernard Kerik until the press performed his background check instead of the White House has another winner on its hands, a deputy press secretary with a late-night hobby.

A couple of issues come to mind. First, it may be that this was Doyle’s first arrest, in which case vetting wouldn’t necessarily have tagged him as being a problem. However, as I understand these matters, it is highly unlikely the 50-something Doyle became a pedophile recently. It’s more likely he’s been one most of his life. If this is his first arrest, a whole lot of people have been looking the other way for a long time.

Remember what I said about Evil not wearing a big E on its T-shirt? Mr. Doyle may be a sweet and charming guy to most of his acquaintances. No doubt he doesn’t fit stereotypes of what a child molester is like. Cognitive dissonance would have brushed away the clues. This is not a political phenomenon. Maybe somewhere there’s a soc-psych study that argues conservatives are more prone to cognitive dissonance than liberals, but absent hard data I wouldn’t make that claim. Liberals are not immune.

However, there must have been clues. Doyle wasn’t even trying to be discreet or hide his identity.

Second, the Bush Administration has a long-established pattern of hiring people based on party or personal loyalty rather than experience. It’s not what you know, but who you know, that counts with Bushies, and not just in DHS.

So no wonder they can’t “vet straight.” No doubt the “vetters” are crony hires who aren’t qualified for their jobs.

Update: See firedoglake.