Originally Posted by
jkhuggins
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no knowledge about this situation; what I'm about to say is sheer speculation.
I just saw a brief report on CNN that Senator Reid is planning on "forcing a vote" in the Senate on Erroll Southers' nomination soon after the holiday recess -- even over the objections of Senator DeMint.
It strikes me that, in the highly polarized political environment that is Washington, not having Gale Rossides giving statements makes it look like TSA doesn't have a director ... thereby making the vote to confirm a director for TSA seem more urgent.
So, perhaps, there's a reason we haven't heard from Ms. Rossides. But, as I said, this is just my uninformed speculation ...
Not too bad of a guess, actually, but it's not just the Southers issue.
Rossides isn't part of the Obama inner circle, and as such, probably isn't trusted by the politicals. Every administration, when it first gets in town, pushes career personnel aside. Compounding this natural inclination to rely on people you know is the fact that the Interagency was operating on a holiday status - most key people in every agency are off on annual leave, leaving a skeleton staff to run things.