Janet's no good very bad week.

It's only been a week since I predicted that Janet Napolitano wouldn't last 6 months longer at DHS, and it's already time for an update. 

Since her now infamous "The System Worked" gaffe, Janet's agency has shot itself in the foot twice.  First TSA issued subpoenas against bloggers who posted one of its memos...and then had to immediatly back down.  

Then we saw the TSA's performance at Newark International Airport that made Katrina look efficient.

It is a massive security breach that New Jersey's two senators are calling a "major negligence" and a "management failure."

But, don't take if just from me.  The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz has an excellent summary.

Ms. Napolitano would go on in other ways to prove the potency of man-made disasters—of which she was clearly proving one. In April, she issued a report seeming to target military veterans as potentially dangerous right-wing extremists. She soon apologized. In the same month she managed to suggest that the 9/11 terrorists had entered the U.S. through Canada, which appalled Canadian leaders. Apologies and clarifications followed.

Mr. Obama can't be happy with his Homeland Security chief. It's fair to say no president deserves an appointee so extravagantly unequipped for her job.

Comments

[Stewie]

I thought Biden was supposed to balance Obama's incompetence....I mean "lack of experience". Wait, maybe they meant that Biden had vast experience at incompetence.

Anyway, the Tucson Red Daily Star ran an editorial wherein they said she is doing a bad job but somehow if she continues she'll stop doing a bad job. Beautiful counterstupidity to WSJ's cogent analysis.

[Editor]

Yeah, the TSA is a mess. It's almost like the agency doesn't have a director. Oh that's right! The agency doesn't have a director because Republican Jim DeMint has blocked the appointment of a new TSA Director.

The TSA has been the most fouled up part of the Department of Homeland Security since the inception of the DHS. Maybe it's time for DeMint, and other Republicans, to lift their block so the appointment go forward so someone has direct responsibility for the agency.

[Tod]

Yeah, like having direct responsibility is thee answer.

Janet has direct responsibility of DHS ... and that's working out soooo well.

Oh no, Jim DeMint is the problem. But, then again, maybe he is just doing his job properly ... blocking ... because the goofs in charge are attempting to put another goof in charge.

[Matt Sh.]

Advice to Noah Kroloff - watch out for that bus...

[Jim Torgeson]

Whatever happens, keep Janet in DC. All purchases are final, no returns.

[Tod]

@Jim

"All purchases are final, no returns."

Amen!

[not buying it]

"Editor": the appointment only reached the Senate Committee in November -- from January through November, the opening was "no problem" but suddenly it's the reason for all the problems?

Nice try.

[John Holcomb]

“Brownie moments” only occur in presidencies marked by incompetence, weakness, arrogance and indifference. They don’t happen with a strong intelligent leader who’s confident in his abilities and who was elected with a clear mandate. This type of president is not afraid to admit mistakes, accept responsibility, and take necessary action to correct problems.

Take a look at President Obama’s statements yesterday. “The buck stops with me.” When the system fails, it is my responsibility. “We are at war against al-Qaida. We will do whatever it takes to defeat them.”

Contrast this with the Bush-Cheney model of good government. Bush is handed a report titled “Bin-Laden Determined to in US.” 9-11 follows, 3000 Americans die. No admission of mistakes, no responsibility, no one fired. The buck stops nowhere. Iraq is invaded on grounds of weapons of mass destruction and a connection between Saddam and the 9-11 attack. 4000 American soldiers, tens of thousands of Iraqis die, the count still climbing, and Iraq is left in ruins. No WMD’s. No connection between Saddam and 9-11. No admission of mistakes, no responsibility, no one fired. New Orleans is laid to waste by a storm clearly predicted in plenty of time. Thousands die. The relief effort is a catastrophic failure. No admission that mistakes were made, no responsibility, no one fired. The buck stops nowhere. Osama Bin Laden is trapped and cornered at Tora Bora, expecting to fight to the death. We cut a deal with a Afghan militia who’d been supporting the Taliban a few weeks earlier. They let him escape. Resposibility? Mistakes? Anyone fired?

If you’re hoping for a Brownie moment, this ain’t it. Even a die hard conservative like Maceachern at the Republic acknowledges that Janet’s “the system worked” line was taken out of context. Even a Republican senator acknowledges that the Bush administration failed in its effort to improve security after 9-11. "It is appalling that we have not learned from our mistakes, eight years after the worst terror attacks in our nation's history," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Want a Brownie moment? Keep hoping. Rooting for failure is what Republicans do best right now.

[Chris]

Anyone else hungry after reading Johns comment?

[nick]

Guber nator Janut dug a small hole
for Arizona broke with her spending.

The system worked comment fills graves with how many?.

As an enlistee that asked nothing but to
serve the country I resent deeply the comment from ms Jan nut that my kind
might attempt to harm the country.

Jan must GO!

from the countries

[Dan Troop]

"it's fair to say no president deserves an appointee so extravagantly unequipped for her job", unless of course a President installs a self-promoting hack in a sensitive position as a political payoff.