Nominee To Head TSA Is Also Ethically Challenged
by Big Dog on Jan 3, 2010 at 06:05 Political
We already know that Barack Obama has had trouble finding people without some kind of ethical or tax problem to fill spots in his administration. A number of people were found to be tax cheats. Some dropped out of consideration and others were confirmed even though they committed crimes that would have had severe repercussions for the rest of us.
I was listening to the news after the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt (a terrorist on an airliner). On one of the stations a Democrat apologist was discussing the fact that there was not yet a leader in place at the TSA and this was because a Republican was holding up the nomination. The Republican was not named but whoever it is is doing a great job.
The nominee, Erroll Southers, is another one of those ethically challenged people that seem to be attracted to the Obama administration. Southers, a former FBI agent, did something bad a few decades ago and he was reprimanded for it. What did he do? He “inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws” in order to do a background check on his estranged wife’s new boyfriend. Southers says he was concerned for his young son. Can you imagine if you were in the same position and asked the FBI to check out your wife’s new boyfriend?
But Big Dog, this happened two decades ago and the guy was reprimanded for it. Yep and that would be no big deal for me if he were up for some job that did not involve databases full of personal information. I also wonder why those who worried about a Bush DUI, drug use or Guard attendance decades earlier are not all over this guy. I am also concerned that Southers has not been up front about the issue.
He misled Congress on the issue. He now claims that it was a mistake, an oversight (I wonder if he used Turbo Tax) and that it was inadvertent. He gave differing accounts of what happened and he was not completely honest about ALL that he did (like passing the information he obtained around to others).
This guy is troubling. He will be in charge of an agency that has tons of data at its fingertips. Suppose this guy gets ticked at an ex wife or neighbor. He won’t need to do a background check, he can get them on the no fly list. He can flag them for the extra search (you can get those by ticking off the counter agent too – trust me) or he can make their lives miserable. He has demonstrated that he would use information in an unethical manner for his own personal gain so perhaps he is not the person for this job.
Evidently the Republicans who are holding this nomination up are doing so on a matter that is unrelated but now that he has misled Congress it might be a good idea to take a much closer look at this fellow to see what other problems he might have.
In the over all scheme of things this would just be another corrupt person in the Obama administration. Hell, he would be just another face in the crowd but since he would have access to a lot of data it might be a good idea to keep him away from it.
I never thought I would see the day where we would find someone too unethical for this administration but it looks like that day has actually come.
Of course, the White House is defending him…
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Tags: corruption, ethically challenged, Obama, tsa