Monday, January 4, 2010

Outrageous antics

In the wake of the attempted Christmas Day plot to blow up an airliner, it has been widely reported that Sen. Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, has been holding up President Obama's appointment to head the Transportation Security Administration because the nominee -- Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent -- may allow TSA employees to unionize.

How does this knucklehead get away with this? Unions are, of course, legal in the United States, and workers everywhere should have the right to organize. DeMint is a reactionary demagogue who seems to care little about the security of the nation.

2 comments:

Thomas D said...

I thought that DeMint and the Republicans were holding up the Southers nomination because he used his influence/power/skills to run an unnecessary and possibly illegal background check on the boyfriend of his estranged wife. Then he, uhm, fibbed about it to the Homeland Security Committee of the US Senate. There was a story about this on, I think, ABC World News.

I'm with the reactionary demagogues on this one.

Jim said...

My understanding is that those accusations surfaced after DeMint's hold, which he admitted was based on the possibility of TSA employees being given the right to collective bargaining.

All I'm saying is that the relevant committee should schedule a confirmation hearing (which under the Senate's ridiculous rules one person can hold up). If the accusations you mention are true and disqualifying, then vote the guy down and move onto the next candidate.

The potential for unions shouldn't bring the whole system to a halt.