by
Drew
Angerer/Getty
Images)
If
there’s
one
thing
a
partial
government
shutdown
is
good
for,
it’s
reminding
powerful
people
that
the
systems
they
hollowed
out
eventually
come
for
them
too.
And
so
it
was
at
Houston’s
George
Bush
Intercontinental
Airport
today,
where
a
familiar
face
was
spotted
doing
something
deeply
unglamorous:
waiting.
For
hours.
In
a
TSA
line
that
snaked
across
terminals,
doubled
back
on
itself,
and
seemed
less
like
airport
security
and
more
like
a
theme
park
ride
designed
by
Kafka.
Yes,
that’s
former
Attorney
General
Bill
Barr,
standing
in
the
same
3+
hour
security
line
as
everyone
else.
Turns
out
there’s
no
fast
pass
for
former
architects
of
executive
overreach.
Just
shoes
off,
laptop
out,
and
the
slow
march
of
indignity.
Across
the
country,
TSA
lines
have
ballooned
into
absurdity
as
the
partial
government
shutdown
drags
on.
But
the
wait
at
IAH
is
particularly
bad.
A
staggering
36%
of
TSA
workers
there
reportedly
called
out
today
—
a
not-at-all
surprising
development
given
that
“working
without
pay”
is
simply
unsustainable.
And
the
president’s
decision
to
deploy
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement
officers
is
*not*
helping
the
problem.
And
let’s
be
clear
about
how
we
got
here,
because
there’s
been
a
predictable
attempt
to
muddy
the
waters.
Republicans
own
this
mess.
Full
stop.
They’re
the
ones
who
empowered
Trump’s
personal
police
force
—
ICE
—
whose
abuses
helped
trigger
the
standoff
that
led
to
this
shutdown.
They’re
also
the
ones
refusing
to
take
up
multiple
Democratic
proposals
that
would
fund
TSA
and
alleviate
exactly
this
kind
of
crisis.
The
dysfunction
isn’t
some
abstract
inevitability;
it’s
a
policy
choice.
Which
brings
us
back
to
Barr.
Sure,
on
one
level,
there’s
something
almost
charming
about
the
idea
that
former
Trump
officials
are
“just
like
us,”
stuck
inching
forward
in
a
security
line,
silently
calculating
whether
they’ll
miss
their
flight.
But
of
all
the
people
now
trapped
in
these
interminable
lines,
Barr
is
uniquely
positioned
to
appreciate
the
consequences
of
governance
by
grievance
and
power
grabs.
This
is,
after
all,
a
man
who
spent
his
tenure
bending
the
Justice
Department
toward
presidential
whims
and
helping
normalize
the
erosion
of
institutional
guardrails.
The
rule
of
law
didn’t
just
fray
on
its
own,
it
was
actively
worked
over
by
people
like
him.
It’s
like
they
say,
sympathy
is
in
the
dictionary
between
shit
and
syphilis.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter
@Kathryn1 or
Mastodon
@[email protected].