Sounds like you were being a jerk just to be a jerk.
Were you looking to procure an incident, trying to get on their nerves, testing their professionalism-- or what? This disugusts me and gives those who object to the TSA's policies a bad name.
Then I am equally guilty of being a jerk and I admit it and although I may have toned down the way I act towards a clerk who was courteous like this one, I smile at the thought of being able to do anything LEGALLY possible to make the clerks working life as miserable as inhumanly possible^ and if that carries over into their nonworking life, then so be it^, they are the ones that made the choice to work for an organization that is hated and despised by travelers from all over the world, they are the ones that choose to stay and enforce TSA upper managements orders to grope and molest people at the checkpoint, to force or coerce people into the radiation porno machines or submit to being sexually assualted as the only alternative to not flying
"trying to get on their nerves" you say?, ABSOLUTLEY^
"testing their professionalism"? then its a very short test in most cases
If this disgusts you, I make no apolgies, I have not read every post in this thread yet, but I am betting that the majority are in agreement with the OP.