Lew’s article today on the Bush Administration and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) makes a number of good points. Yet, while he rightly places the blame on the Bush Administration for this monstrosity, its creation was bi-partisan.

Shortly after 9/11, the New York Times editorialized in favor of abolishing private airline security, saying that it would be better for us to have “well-trained federal” employees doing the job. The Democrats in Congress were the first to really push that one, and Howard Dean last year publicly bragged that the Democrats were really the ones responsible for the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, am I letting Bush off the hook and challenging Lew’s article? Not at all. First, this was an opportunity for the Bushies and the Republicans to make a public case against the creation of this bureaucracy and for private enterprise. Yes, they would have been excoriated by the New York Times, Washington Post, and the major networks, but what else is new? Those entities have argued for decades that socialism creates a wonderful Nirvana state. Furthermore, only a few Republicans — and certainly no one in the White House — are even capable of making a coherent argument in favor of private enterprise.Second, the TSA is run by the Bush Administration. While Congress created it, the daily activities and rules are the administration’s playground, and — surprise, surprise — they have used it as an entity by which to abuse passengers.

The problem goes beyond just how passengers are abused in the TSA lines. This new atmosphere of “airport security” also partially absolves airlines of their own responsibilities toward passengers. This shows up in things like customer service and how airline employees act when passengers are not on perfect behavior.

Candice Jackson told me of a case in which a male passenger who was in coach wanted to use a bathroom located in the first class section. A flight attendant told him he had to use the coach bathroom, but he said they were full and he had to go immediately. He walked past her anyway and used the verboten bathroom, then went back to his seat. Other flight attendants apologized to him for the first-class attendant, telling him “she was having a bad day.”

Well, the first-class flight attendant then reported him to the cockpit, and the entire flight was diverted to New Orleans, the passengers deplaned, and the passenger who used the wrong bathroom was arrested and initially held on “terrorism” charges. In the end, he had to pay a large fine and be subject to other rather unpleasant things.

In the pre-September 11 and TSA era, this would never have happened. However, the flight attendant was able to engage in score settling with the passenger who disobeyed her, using “terrorism” as her excuse. Yet, while she was in the wrong, it ultimately was the Bush Administration that set the tone for this outrage.

It is my contention that each presidential administration sets bad precedents for those administrations that follow. Reagan empowered U.S. attorneys in the name of “fighting crime,” Bush I launched an invasion of Iraq, expanded the use of criminal charges to deal with so-called environmental violations, Clinton gave us Waco and Kosovo, and Bush II gives us everything else. What will happen in the next administration, be it Democrat or Republican? I don’t know, but I can assure you it will be even worse.