On Christmas Day, a flaming crotch bomber tried to take down a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit. Luckily for us, he was as incompetent as shoe bomber Richard Reid and failed thanks to the passengers and crew on the airplane. As I stated yesterday, I think this incident exposed some unclosed loopholes and weaknesses in our current system. One thing that it has also exposed – the dangers of Republican obstructionism.
In September, President Obama nominated a highly qualified candidate to be administrator of the TSA named Errol Southers. Senator Jim DeMint put a hold on the nomination because DeMint hates unions more than he loves safety of the American people:
The sticking point for DeMint is that Southers would not answer a question about whether he would allow screeners to collectively bargain and unionize.
I’m sorry Senator DeMint, but I don’t really think that’s something you get to decide for other people or is all that supposed concern for the elimination of the “secret ballot” in the EFCA bill just imaginary?
I think there is a lot of blame to go around here – Obama has been very slow with his nomination process (in part because of the strict ethics screening they have to endure) and Democrats have been oddly passive in bringing these nominations to the Senate floor. Democrats have also continued to allow these one Senator vetoes with holds of nominations. Senator DeMint is an ass but why haven’t Senate Democrats been out there screaming about obstructionism and how it’s making our country less safe?
The TSA administrator debacle may be lighting a fire under the Senate a bit. Harry Reid has announced that he’s calling a roll call vote, which means that there will be a cloture vote on the nomination.
I hope that the Senate will stop allowing obstruction with their opaque rules and procedures. I didn’t elect Jim DeMint president, just like I didn’t vote for President Snowe, President Nelson or President Lieberman. I understand retaining the rights of the minority party and avoiding allowing the majority to run roughshod over the minority but this obstructionism is standing in the way of getting the people’s business done. Getting the people’s business done is what I thought the Senate was there to do.