I have to say that it sooooo pisses me off that I (and so many others) have had a more intense background check than the SIDA folks who waltz right through the bypass... :mad:

That likely wouldn't have stopped his nomination though. After all, we have a Treasury secretary who "forgot" to pay his taxes.

Agreed. I only have one thing to add to that: Sold! :)

1)Good.
2)No (thank god)
3)W/M

Would you really rather have another retired admiral? And, law enforcement background is relative in his case. He has a total of about a dozen years, not the claimed 30 (he STARTED 30 years ago), "rising" to detective, a non-supervisory position, followed by not even reaching journeyman level at FBI. He had no supervisory law enforcement experience prior to receiving a "buddy" appointment to Assistant Chief at LAX, where he manages only about 60 people, over 20 of whom are dog handlers. That appointment happened in 2007, at least 15 years after he left law enforcement.

The brightest of those candidates have already fled for their lives when approached about being appointed.

I sure hope that "2)" isn't a possibility. Remember Magaw? Somebody got it into their head early on that "Say, Secret Service protects people and places, they are the experts..." resulting in heavy USSS representation at TSA in the early days. Problem is, they DON'T protect "people." They protect one person at a time, and one place at a time, with a virtually unlimited budget. It doesn't translate to protecting millions for a reasonable cost.

Mr. Southers was on CNN early Friday morning explaining his withdrawal from nomination. He explained that he was being targeted for his stance on collective bargaining and the disclosure of the incident from his past. He clearly admitted he accessed a need to know database but that it was to protect his kid(rather than what the media stated about him checking up on his wife). Then he stated something about the incident where he didn't have a copy of the incident report so when he was nominated, he gave a statement from memory but then someone dragged up a copy and he had to recant what he said. Anyway, to summarize what he said afterwards, he was in an untenable position because President Obama had made some promises which Southers would have to break were he to compromise with the Republicans on TSA issues. While he articulated his position well on TV, I would rather have someone who had no ethical lapses from the past for someone to dig up.

President Obama will just go down the nominee list for the appointee position until it is filled.

:cool: Brilliant! :cool:

In the unfortunate, remote chance that you don't get the nomination, could you please send this to whoever does? It would make their first day on the job much simpler. :D

“Obama’s pick to head the TSA withdrew his name because he performed an illegal background check on his ex-wife’s boyfriend. Still, that’s an improvement from the TSA’s normal procedure: not performing background checks.” — Jimmy Fallon

Looks like Mr. Southers gets the last laugh. It's a smart move for him.

Great. Now he can work for a company that sells voodoo magic machines hype them as an 'expert'. :rolleyes:

Reminds me of someone who works for RapeScan.

Or perhaps he will sell his 'expertise' for a firm that does security for international flights to the US and make ICT look like the be-all end-all of security efficacy. :rolleyes: