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View Full Version : DHS Secretary Napolitano on the hot seat, again




bobbyw24
01-01-2010, 09:23 AM
After a determined effort Monday morning to walk back three disastrous words that threatened to rival “heck of a job Brownie,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spent the rest of the week in Washington reviewing the department’s detection capabilities and increased security and updating President Barack Obama on the assessment Thursday morning.

The president seemed to be trying to throw her a lifeline Tuesday when he made it clear that he understood that her statement that “the system worked” referred only to what transpired after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded his Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. But Republican critics, who already had Napolitano in their sights, spared no words in criticizing her — and show no inclination to stop.

One of them was her home-state senator, Republican Jon Kyl, who told reporters in Arizona that he no longer feels “totally safe” with his former governor at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security. Kyl was flanked at the Phoenix news conference by fellow Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.

McCain didn’t go as far as Kyl, but it was a marked departure from January, when both Republicans appeared at Napolitano’s confirmation hearing to cheer her nomination and remind her of the issue they worked on as a state delegation: immigration reform.

“She's hiked the Himalayas, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and battled cancer,” McCain said at the time. “She'll need the same energy to lead a department that was created five years ago, through the merger of 22 agencies. After some time on the job, she may find that climbing Mount Kilimanjaro — far easier than navigating the halls of the department.”

Indeed, Napolitano’s defenders say DHS secretary is one of the toughest jobs in government — with nearly a $50 billion budget and the task of wrangling 20-plus agencies, including ones that deal with disasters, plague and pestilence. On Dec. 15, the department put out an eight-page release listing its accomplishments for 2009, including starting to implement an airline pre-screening program.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31092.html#ixzz0bNHkdMWL