The Hypocrisy of John Mica

John Mica is now running from the very Transportation Security Administration he helped created.

Jim DeMint placed killing unionization of TSA employees above national security by placing a hold on President Obama's appontment of a new TSA chief administrator. Mica disingenuously blames Obama for DeMint's hold.

MICA: We didn't have a TSA administrator for over a year. It was one of the last appointments the Obama administration made. (Cross talk) So you had an out of control agency... a rudderless agency which is difficult to manage even if you had it all together.

Mica's plan is to kick TSA out and have private companies do the screening. It is painfully obvious to me that Mica never read the 9/11 commission report. Private screener failed miserably and let the hijackers aboard the planes. Furthermore, is Mica suggesting that private companies be given the same authority to use x-ray scans and pat down private body parts? Mica is just ranting about the wonders of private companies after such security measures have failed before.

Mica supported the TSA pat-downs in 2004.

The patdowns could be made obsolete by new machines being tested at six airports nationwide that suck in air around passengers and quickly detect explosive material. But that project is two years behind schedule, said Florida Rep. John Mica, a Republican who chairs the House aviation subcommittee.

“My biggest fear is suicide bombers on an aircraft,” he said. “We just don’t have too many other options than to pat people down to try and detect the explosives.”

Mica did not support pat-downs for travelers on private planes.

"We're concerned," Mica said, "but you can't protect yourself against every single small aircraft or every vehicle."

Translation: Mica's response is hell no to pat-downs to people rich enough to afford their own planes. In Tampa, 15 year-old Charles J. Bishop slammed a private plane into the Bank of America Plaza building. Bishop voiced his supported Osama bin Laden. Bishop was killed in the crash. Bishop's act of terrorism in 2002 shows Mica does not take national security seriously.

Update: Mica is urging travelers not to participate in Opt-Out Day.

“I think the public needs to work with us. We will get it right,” Mica said on CNN’s "State of the Union." “I’m not going to support that but we need to get it right and we will.”

Mica support the pat-downs during the Bush administration. Mica now feels differently that there is a Democratic administration and heat on him for helping to create the TSA. A true profile in courage.

Mica criticized John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), for signing off the new invasive pat-down procedures. He said Pistole needs to change course because of the public outcry against the pat-downs.

“I don’t think the rollout has been good and the application is even worse. This needs to be refined,” Mica said. “He says this is the only tool and I believe he’s wrong.”

Really? Mica himself said in 2004 that the pat-downs were necessary.

“My biggest fear is suicide bombers on an aircraft,” he said. “We just don’t have too many other options than to pat people down to try and detect the explosives.”