The Tyranny Of The Minority Continues

As the GOP puts a new hold on a new TSA head from even being considered.

The nomination of a former FBI agent to lead the Transportation Security Administration hit a new obstacle Wednesday as several Republican senators expressed "serious reservations" about the nominee and pressed the White House for details of incidents in which he improperly accessed a confidential federal database years ago.

White House officials had hoped to speed the confirmation of Erroll Southers to revive confidence in an agency that has been leaderless for months and in the spotlight since the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day exposed intelligence and security lapses.

Southers's nomination had been held up by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) because of concerns he would support the unionization of TSA workers. On Wednesday, DeMint and six other Republican senators -- including John McCain (Ariz.), Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) -- demanded that the White House provide information about why Southers initially gave Congress an incorrect account about the searches two decades ago, incidents that led to his censure by the FBI.

"We believe that Mr. Southers submitted erroneous, and possibly misleading information regarding ethical violations during his service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the senators wrote in a letter to Nancy D. Hogan, special assistant to the president and director of presidential personnel.

Also on Wednesday, Coburn placed a hold on the nomination, pending the White House response to the senators' questions.

The letter and Coburn's hold follow a report in The Washington Post last week that detailed how Southers provided differing accounts to the Senate about incidents in 1987 and 1988 in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, in a search for records about his estranged wife's boyfriend.

And while Southers definitely raises questions, the GOP is on one hand screaming for the head of Janet Napolitano saying the TSA is rudderless, and on the other hand blocking the nomination of a TSA head from even being considered in the first place.

If there's questions about him, bring them up in the nomination hearing.  Get your answers there.  But there's no way anybody can consider the Republicans as serious on national security at this point.