The Billiken's Bluff

In a news story that calls to mind the departing Clinton Administration removing the letter "W" from all the keyboards in the White House, Ted Kennedy has been placed on the Department of Homeland Securities' "No-Fly" list. Last Thursday Kennedy spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his first-hand experience with the government's problematic 'watch' lists.

Kennedy says that a US Air ticket agent wouldn't let him on a flight out of Washington to Boston, because his name was on the national 'no-fly' list. The list is designed to keep those designated as potential terrorists from flying. With help from an airport supervisor, Kennedy was able to fly home, but then the same thing happened coming back to Washington.

Kennedy says he had to enlist the help of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to get his name removed from the list. The process took 3 weeks in all.

The Department of Homeland Security tried to explain the incidents. A DHS spokesman said, "on one flight Kennedy was misidentified as someone who needed extra screening when going through security, because he was mistakenly identified as someone on a watch list."

Mistakenly identified? Ted Kennedy? This face?



Ted Kennedy has only been the most recognizable Senator in the country for the past 30 years. It seems problematic if it takes such a well-known figure 3 weeks to get his name removed from the "no-fly" list. What about the average traveler who is mistakenly marked by the DHS?

What seems more likely is that Ridge and the GOP are busting Kennedy's chops. Afterall, George W. Bush was known as quite the practical joker at Yale.

If anything they should tag Kennedy as someone who needs to purchase an extra seat on the airplane to accomodate his ample proportions.

[Via CBS News]