Let's imagine that in 2003 a cop in Chicago had tasered a 10 year-old child and issued a threat that a member of Barack Obama's family would "eat a f***ing lead bullet". Now let's further pretend that Barack Obama became the governor of Illinois in 2004. Would it be unethical for him to inquire to one of his cabinet members--with the authority to fire this corrupt cop--why issuing a death threat and tasering a child led to a 5-day suspension rather than dismissal? If this cabinet member were so afraid of getting sued by the corrupt cop, or by a sleazeball police union boss, would that be grounds for Obama to fire the cabinet member?