TSA nominee mislead Congress

From the Washington Post. Erroll Southers, President Obama’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Adminstration, told two tales which obviously are inconsistent.  Of course, he says his inconsistencies about his conduct were “inadvertent.”  

Here’s what he did: Twenty years ago when he was with the FBI, his wife moved in with a boyfriend, so he accessed a federal database to snoop on the boyfriend.  That was illegal.  The WaPo tries to sugar-coat his breaking of the law by writing that his actions were “possibly in violation of privacy laws…”  No “POSSIBLY” about it–they were a clear violation. 

Then he lied about it to the U.S. Senate.  Back in October 2009 he claimed in an affidavit–that is a document sworn to under oath— to a Senate committe that he had asked someone in the local police to access the records for him, and he described it as an “isolated” incident.  He was trying to distance himself and make the offense less egregious.  In other words, “I didn’t actually do it, and it only happened once.” 

But it turns out that he, himself, accessed the records. And not just once–an “isolated” incident–but twice.  Is that  two “isolated” incidents? Or a pair of isolated incidents.  Or just the only two times he got caught? Reminds me of the song “The twelve days of Christmas.”  “…Two “isolated” incidences, and a perjury in  Congress.”  Maybe we can get some songwriter to finish it for me.  

His excuse for the perjury? After he was approved for the position by the U.S. Senate committee, he “recalled” that it was he himself who accessed the data, and not once but twice.  And he not only twice violated the boyfriend’s privacy himself, but he passed the information along to the local police.  He’s a stalker.

He was censured for his actions when they occurred twenty years ago.  How many people could not recall the details of being censured by their employer for breaking the law, even if it was twenty years ago? That incident was etched in his mind.  He is either a perjurer, or he has early onset of dementia.  Either way, he is unfit for the job. 

Hey, I’m all for forgiving people who made mistakes. But you learn from their mistakes. OK, the guys a thief, we won’t put him in charge of the cashier or the collection plate, etc.  And you don’t elevate tax cheats to the head of the IRS, or people who break the laws of privacy to the head of the TSA.  Ugh, unless you are President Obama. 

And of course, since this Detroit bomb scare, the Dems are using a sense of urgency to try to get him approved by the full Senate.   Just like they said Timothy Geithner was urgently needed to be approved as Treasury Secretary despite being a tax cheat.  I’m sensing a pattern here…

UPDATE: Oh, shit! I just learned that Mr. Southers is black. How long before those who oppose his nomination are labeled raaaaacists?!!