A group of conservative leaders, including a Texas conservative congressman, is calling on Janet Napolitano to resign from her post as secretary of Homeland Security over her apparently “reckless” statements and behavior.

“We are concerned that your performance as Secretary has not been consistent with the high standards required of your job,” the Conservative Victory Committee wrote in a letter it sent last week to Napolitano.

“You have made decisions that are at best highly questionable; at worst erroneous --sometimes dangerously so. And you have on several occasions said things that have been reckless and demonstrate a lack of understanding of the perilous realities which threaten us as a nation.”

The letter was signed by Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Texas) and 18 members of the committee, including: Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America; L. Brent Bozell, executive director of the committee; Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; Herman Cain, president of THE New Voice, Inc.; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness.

(Disclaimer: Bozell is also chairman of the Media Research Center, the parent company of CNSNews.com.)

Wright told CNSNews.com that Napolitano’s errors since taking the job last year, while largely rhetorical, have caused tangible damage to American national security.

“Her verbal gaffes show a deep misunderstanding of the threat that America faces and terrorists have now judged that America is vulnerable on our homeland,” Wright said.

“We know that because of the recent attacks within our borders,” she added, referring to the shootings at the Fort Hood military base and the attempted bombing of a Northwest airplane on its arrival to Detroit on Christmas Day.

The group’s letter said that Napolitano had left them “no choice” but to ask her to step down after the series of statements they perceived as fatal gaffes.

Napolitano Forced to Correct Course Several Times

The “gaffes” began in March of 2009 with what the conservative group called a “bizarre announcement,” in which Napolitano said DHS would eschew the term “terrorism” in favor of “man-caused disaster.”

Napolitano told the German magazine Der Spiegel on March 16 that she had not mentioned terrorism in her first testimony before Congress as secretary because she wanted to “move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.”

The conservative group wrote: “This sort of semantic amorphousness typifies your misunderstanding of the gravity of the position you hold and the import of that with which you are charged.”

A second controversy arose in April when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a terrorism assessment report -- “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” -- that seemed to take aim only at conservatives and war veterans.

The document warned that “rightwing extremism” was on the rise due to the “general state of the economy”; that white supremacists were using President Obama’s election as a recruiting tool; that returning veterans, armed with combat skills, might also join terrorist groups or become “lone wolf extremists”; and that new “firearms restrictions” could also agitate people to join rightwing extremist groups.

Wright said the report illustrated that the DHS was confused in its priorities.

“They appear to think that veterans returning home from military service, that pro-lifers and other conservatives are a threat that ought to be watched by government agents,” Wright told CNSNews.com. “And yet at the same time, she seems to downplay the threats from those who have clearly stated that they seek America’s destruction.”

At the time the DHS report came out, another member of Congress, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), took to the floor of the House to ask for Napolitano’s resignation.

“It’s not too soon to do that because to consider whole blocks of the American electorate somehow a threat to American security,” Bachmann said. “[The report] is like a hammer coming down on interest group after interest group that apparently the Obama administration sees as a threat to itself.”

Napolitano later admitted the report was poorly written and was taking steps to fix the problem within her department.

The secretary was also forced to issue a clarification after she suggested that Canada had allowed eventual 9/11 hijackers across its border into the United States. In an interview with Canada’s CTV, Napolitano alleged that, “to the extent that terrorists have come into our country ... across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there."

Asked whether she meant the hijackers who perpetrated 9/11, she said, "Not just those but others as well."

The 9/11 Commission Report found, however, that the hijackers had all come from overseas, not from North America.

“We know, and I know, that 9-11 terrorists did not cross the Canadian border,” Napolitano later clarified, holding a press conference to address the issue.

Most recently, Napolitano has faced criticism for the near-miss Christmas Day bombing attempt of an aircraft that originated from Amsterdam and landed in Detroit. “Your reaction to the failed suicide bombing of Northwest Flight 253 was just the latest of these (gaffes),” the Conservative Victory Committee wrote. “To publicly declare that the ‘system worked’ when it so obviously did not exhibits a disregard for the responsibilities—and a lack of understanding—of the important job you hold.”

Napolitano originally had told CNN’s Candy Crowley that “the system worked” because despite getting on the plane, would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was subdued by passengers.

“And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action,” she said. “Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 129 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not comment for this story. But Jena Baker McNeill, a homeland security policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, defended the secretary. McNeill said she does not think the gaffes warrant a resignation from Napolitano -- just yet.

“I think any time you come into a new high-profile position, you know, there’s always going to be -- you’re going to make a few mistakes. So, I think it might be premature to call for her resignation,” McNeill told CNSNews.com.

Blame for the seeming incompetence of the department, she said, rests more with the White House.

“To me, this is something that needs to be more squarely on the White House, because they have failed to delineate their priorities in terms of homeland security,” McNeill told CNSNews.com. “I think that kind of trickles down and so I would put more blame on the White House for the handling of terrorism issues than I would on Napolitano for her ‘misspeaks.’”

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, meanwhile, went on Fox News to defend Napolitano on Jan. 5, saying the blame for the attack did not fall squarely on her.

Said Ridge: “[Neither the] secretary of Homeland Security, nor can the department, act on anything until they get the information. They only consume information, they don’t generate intelligence. They have to act on intelligence. And the Department of Homeland Security could not have revoked the visa (of Abdulmutallab, the alleged Christmas Day bomber, whose father reported him as a threat to U.S. officials). The Department of Homeland Security could not have put this name on the National Counterterrorism Center. The Department of Homeland Security couldn’t have done anything with Maj. Hasan [the Fort Hood shooter].”

CWA’s Wendy Wright, however, countered that Napolitano fundamentally differed from Ridge in her job performance at DHS.

“Janet Napolitano expresses a completely different view of the threat to America than previous homeland security [secretaries] have had,” she told CNSNews.com, “and her misunderstanding of the terrorist threats makes . . . Americans more vulnerable.”


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