Whether or not it involves cronyism and cover-up, the affair of the White House travel office is a tale of ineptitude by officials who blindly followed bureaucratic rules. It begins with a phone call on Wednesday, May 12, from associate White House counsel William Kennedy to James Bourke, head of the FBI unit that conducts investigations of presidential nominees. Kennedy, a former law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton, spoke vaguely about problems at the travel office, which charters flights for reporters accompanying the President and makes airline and hotel reservations for Executive Office aides. Would the FBI take a look?
Bourke...