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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News DeMint more DeMinted than ever
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 3:09 PM
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, from our lovely sister state of South Carolina, claims to be a staunch defender of freedom, fiscal responsibility and, above all, America’s national security. So why is he playing games with the one government agency that could make a big difference in combating airline terror attacks? The answer is ideological purity – American conservatives’ biggest weakness. In an excellent article from McClatchy, Margaret Talev revealed that DeMint is holding up the nomination of Erroll Southers, Pres. Obama’s choice for administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, all because Democrats want TSA employees to have the right to unionize. DeMint may be undecided about his hair color (although he's favored black dye lately -- maybe a new "Elvis" phase?), but he's firm on anti-unionism. So now we have Southers, who is a respected counter-terrorism expert, having to put his expertise is on hold while DeMint rails against one of the far right’s favorite boogeymen, unions.
OK, Jim, we get it. You and your cohorts don’t like unions. Now, will you please get out of the friggin' way while the grown-ups try to improve the TSA’s miserable past performance under your great, union-hating former leader, George W. Bush? The right’s increased clutching at “ideological purity” to guide them through a new century is stupid enough from a political standpoint, but at least that’s their problem. Now, though, it’s America’s problem, as DeMint and his DeMinted fellow wingnuts would rather let the TSA remain leaderless – even after the bungled Christmas Day airline attack – than give up one iota of political advantage to labor unions or the TSA’s workers. How much crazier is the American right wing gonna get before someone starts talking about straitjackets?
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