One of the Secret Service supervisors ousted in the agency's ongoing prostitution scandal joked on Facebook that he was checking out former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as he protected her during the 2008 campaign. 
 
 FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2008 file photo, a Secret Service agent stands near then presidential candidate Barack Obama, background, at a rally in Norfolk, Va. Moving swiftly, the Secret Service forced out... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 30, 2010 file photo, Senate Judiciary Committee member, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sessions told reporters Thursday, the president should take... (Associated Press) 
 
 David Chaney, one of two supervisors forced out of the agency this week, wrote: "I was really checking her out, if you know what i (sic) mean?" after a friend commented on the picture posted in January 2009. 
 
 In an interview with Fox News Thursday, Palin said the joke is on Chaney. 
 
 "Well, check this out, buddy _ you're fired!" Palin said. 
 
 Chaney posted at least two pictures of him with Palin, along with another in which a woman in a revealing bikini top stood in the background, looking at Chaney. The photo was captioned: "not in front of my son." 
 
 Details of the photos and comments were first reported Thursday by The Washington Post. 
 
 Palin said the scandal is "a symptom of government run amok." 
 
 "It's like, who's minding the store around here?" Palin told Fox. "The president, for one, he better be wary, there, of when Secret Service is accompanying his family on vacation. They may be checking out the first lady instead of guarding her." 
 
 Earlier Thursday, he White House had expressed renewed confidence in the director of the Secret Service in the midst of the sordid scandal, which threatens to become a serious political distraction in an election year. A key lawmaker who oversees the Secret Service predicted more firings there soon. 
 
 President Barack Obama's chief spokesman, Jay Carney, noted that some Secret Service employees involved have already lost their jobs, just days into the government's formal investigation of the incident last weekend in Colombia, where Obama was to attend a summit meeting. Carney also said the president's security in Cartagena was never compromised, and he asked for patience as official investigations continue. 
 
 "Perhaps it would be in the interests of a complete and thorough and fair investigation not to make determinations about the conclusions of an investigation before they've even been reached," Carney said. "That's the president's position." 
 
 The scandal arose ahead of the Summit of the Americas when at least some of 11 Secret Service employees brought prostitutes back to their Cartagena hotel. The agency has moved quickly to try to quell the embarrassing episode, forcing out three employees so far, including two supervisors. The supervisors were in the agency's uniformed division; one is a sergeant, according to a person familiar with Secret Service operations who refused to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. 
 
 Lawrence Berger, general counsel for the Federal Law Enforcement Officials Association, confirmed Thursday he is representing the supervisors, Chaney and Greg Stokes, but said he could not discuss details of the investigation. 
 
 "I cannot comment because I have an obligation of confidentiality with my clients and I have to maintain that," Berger said. 
 
 A third employee has resigned. The employees under investigation include members of the agency's "jump teams," which are sent to sites to set up security in advance of the president's arrival. Others are on counter-assault and counter-sniper teams. The majority of the group is believed to be based in the Washington area. 
 
 Eight men remain suspended and have had their top-secret security clearances lifted. The scandal also involves about 10 military personnel and as many as 20 Colombian women. 
 
 Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Thursday that more firings could be imminent. 
 
 "I wouldn't be surprised if you saw more dismissals and more being forced out sooner rather than later," said King, who is being updated on the investigation by Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. "You may see a few more today or tomorrow." 
 
 Sen. Chuck Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he thought more people would be fired within "just a few days." 
 
 "`I expect there will be more, but that's what the investigation is all about." 
 
 Three U.S. military officials have said the military personnel include five Army Green Berets, two Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal technicians, two Marine dog handlers and an Air Force airman. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. 
 
 An Air Force colonel and a military lawyer have gone to Colombia as part of the military investigation. The Secret Service probe has included interviews with the employees and hotel staff. 
 
 King said investigators in Colombia have not been able to interview the women. 
 
 A 24-year-old prostitute told The New York Times this week that the scandal became public after she fought over payment with one of the Secret Service employees, and it spilled out into the hallway of the Hotel Caribe on April 12. 
 
 Jose Pena, a Cartagena taxi driver, told The Associated Press that he picked up the woman after the dispute. She said she left the hotel, where other members of the security detail and the White House press corps were staying, after she was paid $225. 
 
 In Cartagena this week, sex workers and hotel staff were reluctant to speak about the incident, which has become an election year embarrassment in the U.S. 
 
 Prostitution is legal in Colombia, and Cartagena thrives on the sex tourism industry, Mayor Campo Elias readily acknowledged, with hundreds of prostitutes available on any given night throughout the colonial walled city. 
 
 In Washington, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who said she had not been briefed, called the incident "disgusting." 
 
 "There has to be an investigation to see how this could have happened, and those responsible should have to pay a price," Pelosi said. "But as with all these things, there are many people in the Secret Service who do their job responsibly, and we can't paint everyone with the same brush. But nonetheless, those people who were responsible have brought disgrace and it's disgusting." 
 
 Rep. Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican, called for leadership changes at the Secret Service. 
 
 "I mentioned before, and I can't get a better analogy than baseball. You get three strikes," Forbes said. "They went over their budgets, they couldn't control their budget. They couldn't control who got in the White House. And now we're talking about just absolutely a fundamental principle of security planning _ you don't let the prostitutes in." 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada suggested the problem lies with the judgment of those involved. 
 
 "Understand this, there is not a committee hearing that's going to take the place or stop people from being stupid. There is not a bill we can pass to cause people to have common sense," Reid said. "Think about this. People that are here to protect the president, they go to Colombia and have a fight with a prostitute over how much she should be paid. That's either very stupid or a total lack of common sense." 
 
 Another Republican lawmaker said Thursday that the Secret Service incident raised questions about whether Obama was capably leading the government. 
 
 "I don't sense that this president has shown that kind of managerial leadership," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. 
 
 During his daily briefing, Carney shot back: "That sounds very much like a lawmaker attempting to politicize something that is not at all political." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman, Jim Abrams, Julie Pace, Larry Margasak, Ken Thomas and Eileen Sullivan in Washington, Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., Denise Lavoie in Boston and Frank Bajak in Cartagena, Colombia, contributed to this report. ||||| Three more Secret Service officers resigned Friday in the expanding prostitution scandal that has brought scorching criticism of agents' behavior in Colombia just before President Barack Obama's visit for a summit meeting last week. Agency Director Mark Sullivan came to the White House late Friday to personally brief Obama in the Oval Office. 
 
 FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2008 file photo, a Secret Service agent stands near then presidential candidate Barack Obama, background, at a rally in Norfolk, Va. Moving swiftly, the Secret Service forced out... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Oct. 4, 2008, David Chaney, right, who identified himself on his Facebook account as a member of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Secret Service detail, watches... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 30, 2010 file photo, Senate Judiciary Committee member, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sessions told reporters Thursday, the president should take... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Secret Service announced the new resignations, bringing to six the number of agency officers who have lost their jobs so far because of events at their hotel in Cartagena. 
 
 An additional agency employee was implicated Friday, a government official said, commenting only on condition of anonymity concerning the continuing investigation. That brings the number to 12. One has been cleared of serious misconduct but still faces administrative action, an official said. 
 
 Obama's spokesman has assailed Republican criticism that has attempted to blame a lack of presidential leadership for the scandal and has said Obama would be angry if allegations published so far proved to be true. Friday's was Obama's first personal briefing by Sullivan on the subject, officials said. 
 
 Eleven Secret Service employees had been noted earlier. The 12th has been placed on administrative leave. 
 
 The scandal also involves at least 11 military members who were working on security before Obama arrived in Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas. The Pentagon acknowledged Friday that the 11th military person, a member of the Army, was implicated. 
 
 The incident in Colombia involved at least some Secret Service personnel bringing prostitutes to their hotel rooms. News of the incident, which involves at least 20 Colombian women, broke a week ago after a fight over payment between a prostitute and a Secret Service agent spilled into the hotel hallway. A 24-year-old Colombian prostitute told The New York Times that the agent agreed to pay her $800 for a night of sex but the next morning offered her only $30. She eventually left the hotel, she told the newspaper, after she was paid $225. 
 
 Two Secret Service supervisors and another employee were forced out of the agency earlier in the week. All of the agents being investigated have had their top-secret clearances revoked. 
 
 Meanwhile, the lawyer for two Secret Service supervisors said that Obama's safety was never at risk, and he criticized leaks of internal government investigations in the case, signaling a possible strategy for an upcoming legal defense. 
 
 The Secret Service briefed about two-dozen congressional staff members Friday, mainly from the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to one individual who was there but was not authorized to be quoted by name. 
 
 The person said investigators have photo ID's and names from a Cartagena, Colombia, hotel registry for all the women who stayed overnight and are in the process of conducting interviews. Investigators have interviewed maids and said no alcohol or drugs were found in the rooms. 
 
 Those under investigation were offered polygraphs and drug tests. It is unclear whether anyone accepted, the person said. 
 
 As for the military personnel involved, Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was getting regular updates on the investigation. 
 
 "He understands the level of interest in this issue," Little said. "He has serious concerns about the alleged misconduct." 
 
 Little said members of Congress have not yet been briefed on the military investigation but would be "in the near future." 
 
 In a letter to Secret Service employees Monday and obtained by the AP, Director Sullivan said the agency had moved in a "swift, decisive manner immediately after this incident was brought to our attention." He praised "the overwhelming majority" of employees who he said had acted with the "highest levels of professionalism and ethical behavior." 
 
 "Our job, our mission, our responsibility is to the president, the American people and the individuals we are entrusted to protect," Sullivan said. "This is not just a matter of honor, although this is critical. It is imperative, as part of our sworn duties, to always act both personally and professionally in a manner that recognizes the seriousness and consequence of our mission." 
 
 In Colombia Friday, Colombian prosecutors spent more than three hours questioning a taxi driver who led reporters to the home of the young woman who he said was the prostitute who launched the scandal by complaining of not being paid by a Secret Service agent at the Hotel Caribe. 
 
 A senior official in the local prosecutor's office said the driver, Jose Pena, was not suspected of any crime but that a Colombian investigation into the case began Thursday to ensure that none of the prostitutes involved was a minor. 
 
 There is no information indicating a crime was committed, said the official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name. 
 
 The prosecutor's office official said the Colombian investigation was separate from U.S. probes and that Colombian investigators had not been in touch with the U.S. investigators. The official also said the Colombian investigators did not have and had not asked for a copy of the security videotapes from inside the hotel. 
 
 Pena told the AP Friday morning that he had not spoken with any U.S. investigators. He did not answer his phone after he met with Colombian investigators. 
 
 The lawyer for ousted Secret Service supervisors David Chaney and Greg Stokes, Lawrence Berger of New York, said Friday that leaks surrounding the investigations "distort the process." 
 
 Regardless of what happened inside hotel rooms, Berger said, it never jeopardized the president's security. Berger said he could not comment on the woman's claims about being paid for sex, but he added, "I don't think anything she has said is material to any of the issues I am pressing with my clients." 
 
 "Nothing that has been reported in the press in any way negatively or adversely impacted the mission of that agency or the safety of the president of the United States," Berger said. 
 
 Chaney and Stokes were forced out of the agency Wednesday. A third agent, who has not been identified and was not a supervisor, resigned. 
 
 On Chaney's Facebook account, which was made inaccessible on Friday, Chaney joked about his work with former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while he was protecting her in 2008. The AP published a photograph it took of Chaney working in Palin's protective detail in October 2008 during a campaign rally in Carson, Calif. 
 
 "I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?" Chaney wrote after a friend commented on the picture posted in January 2009 on Chaney's Facebook account. 
 
 Speaking on Fox News late Thursday, Palin said the joke was on Chaney. 
 
 "Well, check this out, buddy _ you're fired!" Palin said. 
 
 The agency's investigation has included interviews of agents and hotel staff. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said this week that investigators in Colombia have not been able to interview the women. 
 
 The affair has also prompted a military investigation of the service members, including six members of the Army, two Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal technicians, two Marine dog handlers and an Air Force airman. 
 
 An Air Force colonel and a military lawyer were also dispatched to Colombia this week. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, patronizing prostitutes is a crime for military personnel. It is referred to as "compelling, inducing, enticing or procuring a person to have sex in exchange for money; or receiving money for arranged sex." 
 
 Officials from U.S. Southern Command, which organized the military role for the security operation, have not provided details of its probe beyond saying that at least some of the military members violated curfew and may have been involved in "inappropriate conduct." 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney has said it is "preposterous to politicize" the issue, responding to criticism from Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Palin, who have said the allegations reflect poor management of the government under Obama. 
 
 Palin described the affair Thursday as a "symptom of government run amok." 
 
 "It's like, who's minding the store around here?" Palin said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan, Laurie Kellman, Robert Burns, Larry Margasak, and Julie Pace in Washington, Nomaan Merchant in Dallas and Frank Bajak in Cartagena, Colombia, contributed to this report. 
 
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 Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/acaldwellap
– One of the two Secret Service supervisors to lose their jobs so far over the Colombia sex scandal joked that he was checking out Sarah Palin as he guarded her during the 2008 campaign, the Washington Post finds. Senior agent David Chaney posted at least two pictures of himself with Palin on Facebook, one with the comment, "I was really checking her out, if you know what I mean." Chaney has been forced to resign, and another supervisor has been informed that he will be fired. In an interview with Fox News, Palin said the joke is on Chaney. "Well check this out, buddy—you're fired!" she said, calling the scandal "a symptom of government run amok," reports AP. "It's like, who's minding the store around here?" she added. "The president, for one, he better be wary, there, of when Secret Service is accompanying his family on vacation. They may be checking out the first lady instead of guarding her."