SO THE HOMELAND SECURITY BILL HAS BALLOONED FROM 35 TO 484 PAGES: And the addition appears to be largely pork. That’s no real surprise, I guess, but while it may not be a surprise it is an illustration.

I’m happy that the Democrats are making an issue of this, even though I’m sure that their main objection is that it isn’t their pork. That they chose to make their stand earlier on protecting public-employee unions rather than civil liberties shows where they stand, too. But the beauty of politics is that people often do the right thing for the wrong reason. (Perhaps more often than for the right reason). I hope this stinker dies in the lame-duck session, though that’s probably too much to expect.

As I’ve written before, I think there has been too little accountability for the failures of homeland security pre- and post-9/11, and I’m not at all convinced that this bill will fix those problems. (How can it, when so little effort has gone into figuring out what the problems were?) The airline industry is strangling under security curbs, and passenger resistance to hassles (though it’s doing its best to chase passengers away on its own). Law enforcement still seems fundamentally unserious about the problem. The whole thing seems to be more about the security of bureaucrats than of the nation. As proof, you need only look at the assignment of officials involved in prior law-enforcement scandals and coverups to homeland security duties. And there’s not much evidence that the proposed DHS will do anything to promote the kind of citizen involvement that might actually do some good, despite the obvious need for a distributed approach to antiterrorism.

But here’s one suggestion for any members of Congress who might read this. (Yes, that means you, Bob Barr). Since the Department of Homeland Security is so important that we’re supposed to surrender various privacy rights, etc., to its extraordinary existence, how about some extraordinary discipline, too. Put in an amendment waiving sovereign immunity where the Department of Homeland Security is concerned. And not some grudging, half-hearted, no-jury-trial waiver as with the Federal Tort Claims Act. An absolute, no-holds-barred, you-can-sue-us-as-if-we-were-Exxon waiver of sovereign immunity. With the Trial Lawyers watching like hawks, the DHS won’t be able to get away with much in the way of misconduct.

And I’ll bet you can get some Democratic votes for that one, too.