The Washington Post just dropped this bombshell: “TSA nominee misled Congress about accessing confidential records“:
The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
The disclosure comes as pressure builds from Democrats on Capitol Hill for quick January confirmation of Erroll Southers, whose nomination has been held up by GOP opponents. In the aftermath of an attempted airline bombing on Christmas Day, calls have intensified for lawmakers to install permanent leadership at the TSA, a critical agency in enforcing airline security.
Southers, a former FBI agent, has described inconsistencies in his accounts to Congress as “inadvertent” and the result of poor memory of an incident that dates back 20 years. He said in a Nov. 20 letter to key senators obtained by The Post that he had accepted full responsibility long ago for a “grave error in judgment” in accessing confidential criminal records about his then-estranged wife’s new boyfriend.
His letter to Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, and Susan Collins (Maine), the ranking Republican on the panel, attempts to correct statements about the episode that were made in a sworn affidavit on Oct. 22 and have been reported.
Southers did not respond to a request for an interview.
Following the Christmas Day terror attack, a lot of people have been pointing fingers at the Transportation Safety Administration for failing to do their job. After a news cycle or two of the TSA taking some pretty severe lumps, there appeared to be a coordinated campaign among Democrats to push back against those criticizing the Obama administration’s TSA failure by pointing the finger at Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
DeMint had a hold on Erroll Southers, Obama’s nominee to be TSA head adminsistrator. Of course, the Obama administration waited nine months to nominate anyone to fill the position — so blaming DeMint for holding up Southers nominee an additional three months seems a bit disingenuous, especially since the delay wasn’t entirely DeMint’s fault as the Senate Democrats were busy with health care. Further, DeMint had some pretty legitimate national security concerns with regard to Southers.
And now on the heels of a massive TSA failure it’s revealed that Obama’s nominee to head up that agency wasn’t truthful with Congress and may have broken laws. It sure looks as if DeMint is vindicated for holding up Southers’ nomination, and this is yet another major national security embarassment for the White House in the wake of what the President admitted was a “catastophic” national security failure on Christmas.
