No, She Shouldn't Resign

From the Urban Politico blog, I was pointed to Andrew Sullivan's vehemently calling for Janet Napolitano to resign as the head of Homeland Security for her very awkward "The system worked" quote on Sunday.

Yes, it is still makes me cringe, and the vague about what "system" she was referring to presented the main problem with her statement. There was just no clarity to what she exactly meant for some. And for those like Sullivan, it clearly represented an "irresponsibility" that "cannot be tolerated."

But I take Steve Benen's perspective and feel that Sullivan way overreacted to her on those words and looked like a fool at the end of it all:

Napolitano's reference to the system, in context, was clearly in reference to the federal response to the attempted terrorism:

"Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated. So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly."

This is hardly scandalous stuff. When there's an attempted act of terrorism, the administration has a series of steps it wants to see executed, quickly and effectively. What Napolitano was talking about was officials' ability to do just that -- getting the right information to the right people at the right time so the right teams are ready, even on Christmas day. This wasn't some drill -- officials were given tasks in response to the attempted attack and "the system worked," inasmuch as everyone did what they were supposed to do after the incident.

Much of the political world is throwing a fit, though, because "the system" didn't "work" before the incident. But isn't that obvious? The fact that AbdulMutallab was on the plane with a potential explosive device in his underwear pretty much proves that there was a breakdown at some point in the system. This much should be pretty clear to everyone, and it's certainly clear to the head of DHS.

Not surprisingly, Sullivan is joined by Republicans calling for her to resign as well because of her originally vague comments.

Up to this point, no one rational (that includes Sullivan, even with him not being rational here) was calling for her to resign or had legitimate complaints about her effectiveness doing her job. She was right in pointing out the dangers of right-wing extremists earlier in the year amidst nutcases like Michelle Malkin slamming her for doing so. And she has been virtually effective in her tenure so far.

So hopefully a guy like Sullivan won't have an irrational knee jerk reaction again to a gaffe getting more attention than actual job performance.