Another Obama TSA Nominee Goes Down In Flames

Is the Democrat talent pool really so shallow that they can't find a decent nominee?

Harding retired from the Army in 2001, ending a three-decade career during which he served as the Defense Department’s top human intelligence officer, managing a $1 billion intelligence collection program.

He became a government consultant on human intelligence and counterintelligence, selling his company in 2009.

Questions arose after his nomination about a contract his company had with the government to provide interrogators in Iraq. After the government ended the contract early, in 2004, Harding Security Associates claimed more money from termination of the contract than the Defense Department’s inspector general said it was entitled to get. The firm refunded $1.8 million of that money in a 2008 settlement with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“I feel that the distractions caused by my work as a defense contractor would not be good for this administration nor for the Department of Homeland Security,” Harding said in a late-evening statement released by the White House. The Transportation Security Administration is part of Homeland Security.

A little over two months ago, Erroll Southers withdrew his nomination to lead the TSA after it became apparent he would have trouble winning confirmation. Questions were raised about a reprimand that Southers, a top official with the Los Angeles Airport Police Department, had received for running background checks on his then-estranged wife’s boyfriend two decades ago. He acknowledged giving Congress inconsistent answers on the matter.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/26/2nd-pick-for-transportation-security-chief-is-out/#ixzz0jNwkhG9r