Another GOP Win: TSA Nominee Withdraws

In the Senate, a nominee for a crucial security agency right after an attempted terror attack can be blocked by a single legislator from the minority party because he has a problem not with the nominee but with organized labor. Sensing the possibility to deal a political setback to the president — again, without contesting the nominee’s credentials to run the agency — others can glom on, shifting their pretexts for obstruction. All of this is entirely commensurate with the rules of a supermajoritarian senate. And now President Obama’s nominee, Erroll Southers, won’t be head of the Transportation Security Agency — without so much as an angry word from a Senate Democrat.