Tsk Tsking Over the TSA

A would-be terrorist hoped to be the ultimate Grinch this Christmas by blowing up a U.S.-bound Northwest jet from Amsterdam. And what does the traveling public get from the resulting chaos? We get the gift of political folderol.

First up, Republicans, who can’t resist any opportunity to criticize the Obama administration or the ruling Democrats, quickly jumped on the Christmas Day near disaster. Representative Peter King of New York has been the most visible critic. "There was a terrible mistake. It makes you wonder what world the administration is living in,” King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN on Sunday (he’s made similar remarks in other places).

King’s angry that security didn’t stop the young Nigerian suspected of being a possible agent of al Qaeda from getting on the plane. He’s angry that President Obama and Vice President Biden hadn’t spoken publicly about the incident before today. And he’s angry that Obama hasn’t done enough to remind the public about the risks of Islamic terrorism.

Another pissed-off Republican is Senator James DeMint from South Carolina. “We can not afford to stand by while networks of terror assemble, plan, and act against free and open societies. America must pursue terrorists and anyone who supports their murderous plans,” DeMint said on his website.

The sentiment is all fine and good—who wants to let “networks of terror” do their thing?—but DeMint is also seen by business-travel columnist Joe Sharkey and others as the chief obstacle to Obama’s choice of Erroll Southers to be the top official at the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA job has been vacant since Obama took office nearly a year ago, and that’s largely because DeMint is worried that Erroll will unionize TSA employees. “The safety and security of the American people are far too important to be controlled by union bosses,” said DeMint, the ranking member on the Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security subcommittee “It’s time for Mr. Southers to give an unequivocal answer: Will he give union bosses control over the safety of Americans at our airports, yes or no?”

So those are the Republicans. Now, let’s look at the Democrats.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday that despite the near catastrophe, the system worked. That her “there’s nothing to look at here” stance was, justifiably, widely mocked. So much so, that today, Napolitano went back on the airwaves to try again.

“Our system did not work in this instance,” Napolitano said on NBC’s Today show. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."

Yet even though the administration is undertaking an “extensive review,” there’s very little useful information coming out of the TSA right now. The TSA issued specific regulations to airlines flying into the United States from foreign countries but is being vague about what these entail to the public.

And what of Obama? He’s in Hawaii on vacation and didn't speak on camera about the situation until today. “We do not yet have all the answers of this latest attempt, but the United States will not only strengthen our defense, but we will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us,” Obama said.

Demanding the president to address the American public on every possible threat, as King suggests he’d like to see Obama do, seems a bit overly dramatic. But, then again, it is the busiest travel period for Americans, and it is an otherwise slow news week and it is a highly combustible situation, so some words from the president couldn’t hurt.

But more importantly, where has Obama been in pushing the Senate to vote for his TSA choice? Or where was Obama when the TSA accidentally published its secret screening procedures online? The administration has been so wrapped up in its quest to get a health reform bill through Congress that other priorities seem to have slipped through the cracks.

You’re left to wonder if anybody in Washington is really concerned about the public’s well-being. Republicans want to point to any incident as a sign of the administration’s incompetence, or they want to put their litmus tests above all else. And Democrats in the administration are either too cool for their own good or practice the same kind of CYA BS that wasthe stock-in-trade of both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

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J. Jennings Moss is editor of Portfolio.com.