INCREDIBLE – AT 5:58 P.M. ET:  Here we are, in the midst of a crisis involving airline security, and the Obamans stumble again, nominating a guy to head the Transportation Security Administration who has more baggage than a fully loaded 757.  Fox News reports on the latest personnel blunder, in a White House famous for them already:

HONOLULU -- President Obama's pick to lead the Transportation Security Administration has provided Congress inconsistent reports about -- and regrets for -- running background checks on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend two decades ago.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent whose nomination has been delayed by Republicans for unrelated concerns, wrote to senators in November to correct what he called a distortion of his record. The delayed nomination has received renewed attention since the failed Christmas Day attack on an airliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"I am distressed by the inconsistencies between my recollection and the contemporaneous documents, but I assure you that the mistake was inadvertent, and that I have at all times taken full responsibility for what I know to have been a grave error in judgment," he wrote in a letter to Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins.

And...

In an October affidavit for the Senate committee, he initially said he asked a San Diego police employee to run a background check on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend and was censured by his FBI superiors 20 years ago for what he said was an isolated instance.

But a day after the committee approved his nomination and sent it to the full Senate, he wrote to the senators and told them that he was incorrect; he said he twice ran background checks himself.

In the letter correcting the record, Southers also said he downloaded law enforcement records and shared them. He said he forgot the incident in 1987 or 1988.

There is also his dodging of questions about his feelings on unionization of TSA employees, something that could put national security at the mercy of labor unions and their decisions.

At this time in particular, the choice for this sensitive position should be above reproach.  True, the incident in question did occur 20 years ago, but the candidate's deception about it occurred just recently.  I would find it hard to believe that he didn't recall downloading law-enforcement records.

Nomination should be withdrawn, with the president saying that there must be no question about the integrity and competence of the person in charge of transportation security.  Or, Southers should be sent the message that he might withdraw himself, and save the president some embarrassment.

January 1, 2010