Friday, January 22, 2010

Obama's TSA nominee, Errol Southers, withdraws

Good riddance. Errol Southers, Obama's choice to head up the Transportation Security Agency, has withdrawn from the nomination.

Southers stated that stopping terrorism "deserves to perhaps have some parity with global warming, with education, with the economy". He also stated that the TSA should be on the look out for Christian identity survivalist types who are against abortion. Washington Post

The Obama administration's choice to lead the struggling Transportation Security Administration withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday, just weeks after revelations that he had provided misleading information to Congress prompted several Republicans to suggest that his nomination would not move forward without a fight.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and homeland security specialist, was presented as a leader who would improve the TSA's sprawling operations and enhance passenger screening to prevent such attacks as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner.

But GOP opposition to Southers escalated rapidly after The Washington Post reported that he had given Congress and the White House misleading information about incidents two decades ago in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database to obtain information about his estranged wife's new boyfriend, possibly in violation of privacy laws.

No comments: