Hmm…

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A California congresswoman said she was briefly denied access to a United Airlines flight last week because her name appeared on a “no fly list” set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who has been a critic of the no-fly list, said her staff had booked her a one-way ticket from Boise, Idaho, to Cincinnati through Denver. But they were prevented from printing her boarding pass online and at an airport kiosk.

Sanchez said she was instructed to check in with a United employee, who told her she was on the terrorist watch list. The employee asked her for identification, Sanchez said.

“I handed over my congressional ID and he started laughing and said, ‘I’m going to need an ID that has your birthday on it,’” Sanchez said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

I’m not sure why this is a big deal.  Once she provided the appropriate information everything was fine.

The employee used Sanchez’s birth date to determine she was not the same Loretta Sanchez on the list, and she was able to board her flight, she said.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said that for security reasons she couldn’t confirm that the name was on the list. But she said that name mix-ups do occur.

“Generally what happens is people have a name that is very similar to someone who is on the no-fly list. It’s the airlines’ responsibility to do further checking,” Peppin said.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I’m not sure why the no-fly list gets all the guff it does.  It isn’t intended to be a catch-all for terrorists attempting to board airplanes, but as a first line of defense when it comes to keeping those monsters off our planes it makes sense to me.  I’m sorry this Congressman had to spend an extra fifteen minutes or so at the check-in counter, but is that really such a high price to pay for this added layer of security?

I don’t think so.

After all, it kept Cat Stevens out of the country, and that’s good enough for me.