May As Well Take Some Political Advantage

It's so difficult to make transportation systems foolproof against terrorists. It's rather easier to make the Senate foolproof against fools:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will force the confirmation of a Transportation Security Administration chief back into motion as soon as the Senate reconvenes on January 19th.

Talking Points Memo reports: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will schedule a formal Senate roll call vote on the nomination of Errol Southers," the Obama appointee who Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has blocked for the past four months over worries about TSA employees being able to unionize. Reid will file a cloture motion to overcome DeMint's block.

Sen. Reid's promise to act comes in the wake of widespread Democratic outrage over DeMint's continued politicization of the confirmation, even after the recent terror attempt on a trans-national airliner headed to Detroit.

Chad McGowan, a Democratic candidate for South Carolina Senate, said of his opponent in a statement: "This is not the time to have nobody in charge of America's air security. Terrorists don't care if we're Republicans or Democrats -- they only care that we're Americans. Senator DeMint needs to understand that."

Firedoglake's David Dayen also notes that almost all security industries, including police, firefighters and EMTs, as well as flight attendants and pilots, are currently members of labor unions, seemingly without detriment to their effectiveness.