PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT 101 – AT 7:37 P.M. ET:  You would think, given recent events, that the Obamans would be ultra-careful about someone they'd nominate for an anti-terror position.  Think again.  Poor vetting, which has cursed this administration, is back with us, as Fox News reports:

There's more trouble ahead for President Obama's nominee to lead the federal agency in charge of airport security.

Seven Republican senators on Wednesday wrote to the White House demanding information about the conflicting accounts nominee Erroll Southers gave Congress over background checks he ran on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend two decades ago.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., previously had held up Southers' confirmation over concerns that he would unionize screeners at the Transportation Security Administration. Even after the failed bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas led lawmakers to call for Southers' swift approval, DeMint stood by his objections.

The questions raised about the background checks added to his concerns -- DeMint joined six other senators in raising the issue with the White House.

"It's just part of a pattern of we are not vetting these candidates clearly," DeMint told Fox News. "I think more and more senators are concerned that this is not the kind of person we want leading, probably at the most vulnerable point we are as a nation as far as keeping our people secure."

Southers wrote to senators last week clarifying "inconsistencies" in his recollection of the background checks. The former FBI agent originally wrote in an October affidavit to a Senate committee that he asked a San Diego police employee to run a background check on his estranged wife's boyfriend and was censured by the FBI 20 years ago for it. He called it an isolated incident.

But after the committee approved his nomination and sent his name to the Senate, Southers wrote back and said that he actually personally ran background checks twice.

COMMENT:  The usual game played in these situations is for an administration to say something like, "These events occurred two decades ago.  The nominee acknowledged his error and has grown since."

The problem is, the inconsistencies in Southers's "recollection" of the events occurred only weeks ago.  And who can really believe a man who says that he doesn't recall looking, personally, for information about his estranged wife's boyfriend?  That's not something someone forgets.

This involves the integrity of a man chosen for a sensitive national-security position.  He should depart.

January 7, 2009