Obama’s African American Nominee For TSA Chief In Background Check Kerfuffle

11/11/2009

INSTAPUNDIT:

THE COUNTRY’s IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: "The Obama Administration’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, Erroll Southers, was censured by the FBI for asking law enforcement personnel to conduct a background check on his ex-wife’s boyfriend. "

Here’s a photograph of Southers.

Neither the blog item that Instapundit is linking to, nor the underlying Washington Post story mentions that Southers is African-American, although they're actually allowed to under the AP Stylebook.

Race: Identification by race is pertinent:

In biographical and announcement stories, particularly when they involve a feat or appointment that has not routinely been associated with members of a particular race. [I. E. the "first black" to do something good is relevant. The thousandth black to commit an armed robbery is not.]

Southers is the first African-American to head the Transportation Security Administration, which was established to deal with the problem of Arab terrorism. (Previously it was headed by two white men and a blonde woman — Norman Mineta was Secretary of Transportation.)The chief defect of the TSA is that it is unwilling to engage in anything like racial or religious profiling, and has guidelines aimed at punishing anyone who does. I wonder if Mr. Southers will do anything to improve this policy? I doubt it, even though he was right about his wife’s new boyfriend:

"The boyfriend had moved in with my ex-wife, from whom I had separated only a short time before, and I was concerned for the safety of her and my infant son, who was also living with them," he wrote. "The database search revealed an outstanding warrant for his arrest, about which I informed my ex-wife."[TSA nominee questioned over FBI censure, Washington Post, November 11, 2009]

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