Frank Kendall ran the Air Force under former President Joe Biden. Last week, the Pentagon yanked his security clearance, accusing him of telling a reporter that the Qatari-donated jumbo jet now serving as Air Force One lacks some of the defensive gear the old plane carried. Kendall says he is completely mystified. Maybe he is. I don’t know what he said or didn’t say, and neither does anyone reading this.

What I do know, after three decades around classified programs, campaigns, and courtrooms, is that we have built a system in which a man can leave government and still walk around for years holding a badge that says, “Trust me.” That badge is the real scandal, and it has nothing to do with which party is swinging the hammer this week.

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Here is my thesis, plain and simple: once you leave the office, the clearance should be left behind. Not eventually. Not after some administrative review board gets around to it. Immediately. Loyalty in a republic belongs to the position, not to the person who used to occupy it. We do not let a retired police chief keep a squad car in the driveway just in case. We should not let former Cabinet secretaries, generals, and intelligence chiefs........

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