GOP Obstructionism Leaves TSA Seat Empty

While President Obama is taking heat for not responding quickly enough to the attempted terrorism in Detroit -- unfairly and hypocritically, it turns out -- blame is a little harder to stick. It'd be a lot easier to stick this on the Obama administration if Republicans had a Transportation Security head to blame. But they don't. The TSA is currently without leadership. GOP critics aren't bringing this up, because it's their fault.

McClatchy Newspapers:

An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.

The post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has held up President Barack Obama's nominee in opposition to the prospect of TSA workers joining a labor union.

That's right, keeping TSA employees from collective bargaining is more important than the safety of the nation. After all, we all know that unions have blown up more planes than terrorists ever have.

How genuine are DeMints concerns? Probably not very. He has a history of bombastic grandstanding. He's just scoring ideological purity points with the base.

Can you imagine what Republicans would say if the situation were reversed and a dem was holding up a GOP president's TSA nominee? And, of course, the media would just go crazy with it.

But this is a Republican, so it's all different -- because, that's why.