Spiff

Politico.com Article

"A candidate for Congress in Georgia said earlier this year that he’d rather see another terrorist attack on the United States than have Transportation Security Agency screenings at airports.

Bob Johnson, a doctor and Republican candidate in Georgia’s solidly-red 1st District, said at a February candidate forum that the TSA is “indoctrinating” Americans."

It's not a binary choice. Getting rid of TSA will not result in a terrorist attack. In any event, I hope he wins just to get more anti-TSA folks into Congress where they can hopefully eradicate this disease of an agency.

cbn42

Does he actually oppose the screening procedures, or is he simply pushing for it to be outsourced to contractors? I can't tell from the article, but given the "government bad, business good" attitude that Georgia Republicans seem to have, he may very well just want the same tasks performed by some company (which he may or may not be connected to).

gsoltso

This is the most recent update on this story, but he backtracked off that comment almost as quickly as it left his mouth. He "clarifies" his comment in this link, by saying he misspoke... obviously.

http://www.wsav.com/story/25480056/j...ersial-remarks

DBCme

His tactics aside, he got the spotlight he so desired.

petaluma1

The Politico article was updated with a clarification also, in case you didn't read it:

I believe that he meant what he said initially but sadly was pounced upon by the anything-for-security crowd. Sad that he didn't have the wherewithal to stand by his initial comment.

Darkumbra

I agree with him.

The problem is that the 'land of the brave' HAS become the 'land of the terrorized'

The TERRORists have won. They HAVE terrorized the USA. And the general population will gladly beg for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of 'security'.

Very sad.

TheOneTheOnly

Good for him. A terrorist attack is like a broken arm, it will heal and life will go on. The tsa is like a malignant tumor, we're dying and it's not a temporary state.

relangford

My father always told me to think before I speak (he probably would have included tweeting and IBB comments in this day). Good advice. I understand what the candidate was trying to say, but he didn't do a good job at saying it. He might be an ally in the TSA debate IF he can learn to speak.

WillCAD

He's fallen into the classic trap set by the AFS crowd. They always present the Hobson's choice - either ANYTHING GOES in the name of security, or have no security at all and THOUSANDS DIE in terrorist attacks. They ignore any other possible outcome and present only those two extremes, dismissing any alternative out of hand as "unworkable" or "too risky".

This Bob Johnson guy seemed to have accepted the faulty premise that there are no other possible scenarios, until his rather thoughtless statement stirred up trouble for his campaign, at which time he began thinking about it a little more and came up with a more reasonable position which acknowledged that there are more than just two grades of laundry, clean and dirty, there are many subtle levels.