Southers withdraws

We’ve been very critical of Erroll Southers, President Obama’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Agency. He engaged in severe misconduct as an FBI agent 20 plus years ago and did not testify accurately or ( in my view) candidly about that misconduct during his confirmation hearings. He also showed himself to be clueless when he stated in 2008 that America is subject to terror attacks because of its alliances with countries like Israel and France. And there were concerns about his unwillingness to answer in clear fashion the question of whether he would support collective bargaining for TSA workers.
Today comes word that Southers has withdrawn his name from consideration for the top TSA job. Sen. DeMint deserves special recognition for the demise of Southers’ nomination. It was DeMint who placed a hold on the nomination, thus slowing the process down long enough for other Senators to take a closer look.
DeMint drew heavy criticism at the time on the pretext that TSA urgently needs a new head. But heavy criticism has never slowed DeMint down.