Alec Jacobs, Columnist
Ideology: Conservative Republican | Writing from: New Jersey

Q: How long can Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano go without looking like a bumbling fool and making a complete idiot out of herself?

A: Trick question! She looks like a bumbling fool and makes a complete idiot out of herself constantly.

There are a lot of things about the Obama administration that are truly disgraceful, but perhaps none more than Napolitano.

In April 2009, after only three months on the job, Napolitano announced plans to strengthen the U.S.-Canadian border. Because, as everyone knows, drugs and terrorists come from Canada and not from, oh…I don’t know, everywhere but Canada. When the announcement was made, everyone with a brain questioned her, and she responded by saying that the attack on 9/11 was carried out by terrorists who had come to the United States from Canada – a claim that is blatantly untrue. Canada was understandably upset, but you must remember that the Obama administration is all about appeasing people who don’t like us while insulting our allies, so this should hardly come as a surprise.

To try to make things better, Napolitano failed miserably and said, “Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it’s been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there.” I can think of a couple of borders napolitanothat Napolitano seems to have forgotten. I mean, come on! The New York-New Jersey border has more issues than the U.S.-Canadian border.

Then there was the time that Napolitano released a report titled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. While I’m sure the liberals have no problem labeling American conservatives “terrorists” while saying that radical Islamic jihadists are simply victims of the West, conservatives rightly took offense to the report. The report concluded that there were several factors that made people susceptible to “recruitment” by “rightwing extremists,” including the fact that Obama is black (because conservatives are all racists, duh) and that America’s veterans were violent, disgruntled and, if contacted by “rightwing extremists,” very dangerous. Nothing like insulting the two best groups of people in this country! All in a day’s work for Secretary Napolitano.

But why choose her for December? Because just a few days ago, Napolitano issued her silliest statement yet.

On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man with ties to al-Qaeda and Yemen whose own father had called the United States government to warn them that his son was dangerous and that he should be monitored because of his “extreme religious views,” attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route to Detroit. Luckily, Abdulmutallab was incompetent and, combined with the reflexes of several passengers aboard the flight, the would-be terrorist was subdued until landing, at which point he was taken into custody.

Despite the fact that Abdulmutallab’s name had been brought to the government on numerous occasions, our government proved once again, as it has many times, just how incompetent it is. Hundreds of people were almost killed because of a systematic security failure. Surely the Secretary of Homeland Security recognized this?

No. “The system worked,” Napolitano said of U.S. security measures on CNN in response to the attempted terrorist attack. And, later that day on ABC: “…once the incident occurred, the system worked.”

Obviously an outrageous statement, Napolitano was immediately attacked by members of both parties. Even President Obama, though he didn’t mention Napolitano, acknowledged that there were serious system failures. So, Napolitano retreated and did what liberals often do when they say something stupid: she claimed that her remarks were taken out of context. Napolitano insisted that she meant the passenger response was the part of the “system” that worked, not the security failures. Whatever you say, Janet. Meanwhile, people across the country are collectively rolling their eyes.

The issue with Napolitano is that she isn’t, for instance, the Secretary of Education. She is tasked with keeping the American people safe and has showed, in only a year, that she is incapable of doing or saying anything even remotely intelligent. Napolitano should (and I think probably will) resign, and make way for someone who actually knows what to do to make sure our homeland is secure.