Foot-in-mouth disease / Napolitano off base in comments about battle against cartels

By San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board,

Friday, March 26, 2010 at 12:05 a.m.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has a knack for sticking her foot in her mouth. Even in an administration where high-level officials – starting with Vice President Joe Biden – are known to say the wrong thing into open microphones, Napolitano’s special gift is that she charges into very sensitive areas and then, with reckless abandon, utters insensitive remarks. In the process, she takes an already tense situation and increases the tension.

When she is not falsely claiming that some of the 9/11 hijackers came to the United States across the Canadian border, or proclaiming that “the system workedâ€