President Barack Obama has caught a lot of grief for leaving the top job at the Transportation Security Administration open for more than a year after assuming office. Some of that flack is legitimate, but some is not. It did take the president more than six months to nominate someone to the post, but that nomination was then short-circuited by partisan political concerns rather than questions of the nominee's suitability for the post. On Monday, the president restarted the process.
The nomination of Robert A. Harding, a retired major general who served in the U.S. Army for 33 years before his retirement in 2001, was announced formally by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Gen. Harding's expertise and experience seem to mesh almost perfectly with the requirements for the post. The Senate should forego what seems to be the inevitable partisan bickering that accompanies any nomination from the White House these days and expedite the nomination.
There certainly is a need for someone to fill the TSA's top post. The agency has been led by an acting administrator since the end of the last Bush administration. Given the sensitive mission of the TSA and the political hothouse in which it operates, a permanent head of the agency likely would provide stability in a time of turmoil. That's clearly needed if the agency is to address its critics and, more importantly, to properly fulfill its mission to help safeguard the nation.
Those concerns, present since the creation of the TSA following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, grew exponentially in the wake of the attempted Christmas airliner attack. That attempt, thankfully thwarted by passengers, prompted deserved new scrutiny of federal intelligence programs and stirred fresh criticism -- mostly from political opponents, but from some friends as well -- that the Obama administration was not doing enough to halt would-be terrorists. Gen. Harding's nomination should dampen if not end that kind of rhetoric.
The retired general is accustomed to leadership. He served as the Department of Defense's top human intelligence officer and effectively managed, by all accounts, a $1 billion intelligence collection program. His work there gives him useful insights into the TSA's operations and its needs.
The president's previous TSA nominee, Erroll Southers, withdrew from consideration earlier this year. His confirmation was blocked by Sen. Jim DeMint, R.-S.C., who apparently worried that Mr. Southers favored collective bargaining rights for transportation security screeners, which Republicans oppose. That's a political response that has no place in the confirmation process.
Gen. Harding's nomination should rise and fall on merit, not political gamesmanship. The TSA, admittedly, has problems. The president's selection of Gen. Harding for the agency's top post both acknowledges that fact and offers an opportunity to begin resolution of them.
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