Despite approval by two Senate committees and terror attack investigations hanging in the balance, Senator Jim DeMint continues to block Senate approval of the prospective Transportation Security Administration appointee Errol Southers, a former FBI agent and counter-terrorism expert tapped by President Obama to head the executive agency. Instead, DeMint is resorting to ad homenim attacks turning the fight to protect American citizens traveling to and within the US into a political fight over labor unions.
The Washington Post has the story:An alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration -- if there were one.
Instead, the post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has held up President Obama's nominee in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union.
DeMint, in a statement, said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempted attack in Detroit "is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA."
One expert is all but laying last week's attempted attack on DeMint's doorstep, according the the LA Times:
Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and expert on security matters, said he wouldn't lay the blame for the Detroit incident entirely on the TSA. But he said the agency can better respond with a confirmed leader in charge.
"We will suffer by not having a leader," he said.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) calls the move "insanity."
