Sen. Jim DeMint Screening the Baggage of the Obama Administration

So naturally, Dems try and blame him for Obama's failure to connect the dots in the Detroit underwear attack!

Speaking of the failed undwear bomber Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) focused his criticism on the heart of the matter:

"Soft talk about engagement, closing Gitmo, these things are not going to appease the terrorists,” said Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina.“They’re going to keep coming after us, and we can’t have politics as usual in Washington, and I’m afraid that’s what we’ve got right now with airport security,”

So naturally, Sen. DeMint becomes a target of the Chicago attack machine which will spend more time trying to destroy DeMint, who is up for re-election in 2010 (campaign web site), than they will trying to protect Americans. Writing in the Washington Examiner, Mark Hemingway describes how "news" media allies of Obama are only too willing to cooperate:

Democrats are trying to blame the Transportation Safety Administration's total failure on Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. News items are starting to appear along these
lines -- see this McClatchy story "Who's running the TSA? No one, thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint"; "Republican senator DeMint holds up nomination for TSA chief" at the Washington Post; and "GOP blame at TSA?" over at Politico. Our national security
apparatus may be in disarray, but thank goodness the Democratic spin machine is
in tip-top shape.

Democrats are trying to pin blame for the TSA breakdown on Sen. DeMint, R-S.C., who has placed a hold Erroll Southers, the Obama administration's nominee to head up the TSA. However, the Obama administration didn't even nominate Southers until September. It's pretty hard get indignant over DeMint for holding up Southers' nomination for three months -- if the post is so crucial, why did the Obama administration wait nine months to fill it? There are scores of other key administration positions that remain unfilled solely due to the Senate's obsessive health care focus, including a number of key Homeland Security and law enforcement positions.

DeMint's concern with Souther is his reluctance to state whether he would permit the workers in the Transportation Security Administration to become unionized. It's a national security issue as it relates directly to TSA's ability to restructure it's workforce and procedures in response to an immediate threat; something that would be impossible with union work rules. Think of it this way: why do you suppose we don't have unions in the military?

More from Mark Hemingway:

Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was fairly blunt about the risks of unionizing TSA employees: "I'm not going to negotiate our national security or subject our national security to arbitration. Marines don't collectively bargain over whether they're, you know, going to end up being deployed in Anbar province or Baghdad."

And as I noted yesterday, DeMint questioned Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano earlier this month about her support for unionizing TSA employees. He asked her specifically how unionizing employees was consistent with safety, when "every previous administrator at TSA has said that collective bargaining is not consistent with the flexibility and the need to change." Napolitano did not answer the question.

Of course we all know how dependent Obama and the Democrats are on the contributions from labor unions. But would they really put their own political interests ahead of national security?

Would they?

Apparently Chris Dodd (D-CT) did just that:

Now that our attention is focused on airline security measures thanks to the failed airline attack on Christmas Day, it's worth mentioning that one senator took money away from aviation security to line the pockets of a constituency that supported his presidential campaign in a big way.

Back in July, Senator Chris Dodd, D-Conn., proposed an amendment reducing aviation security appropriations by $4.5 million in favor of firefighter grants -- a notoriously inneffective program. In fact, the money was specifically "for screening operations and the amount for explosives detection systems." The amendment was also sponsored by Sen. Lieberman, D-Conn., and Sen. Carper, D-Del., but Dodd deserves to be singled out here because the firefighters union is a pet constituency of his. In 2007 he campaigned all through Iowa with the firefighters union. It was one of the few distinguishable features of Dodd's ill-fated presidential
bid.

Conservative Action Alert: Help Jim DeMint in 2010

At the top of the list for conservatives wishing to make a difference and help win big in 2010 should be the re-election of Senator Jim DeMint. His outspoken criticism of the Obama Administration has made him a major target for defeat by the left.

Any contribution you care to make would send a strong signal to Sen. DeMint that you appreciate his leadership and the risks he is taking to defend America against the socialists who would weaken our national security and undermine our economy and political system.