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by Mark Silva

The blocked nominee for chief of the Transportation Security Administration may face more than controversy over the unionization of the nation's airport screenershe now finds himself explaining his own only recently refreshed memory of some screening that he had undertaken on his own:

Background checks on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend some 20 years ago.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and now assistant chief of the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, had informed senators reviewing his nomination by President Barack Obama to head the TSA of a regrettable incident long ago for which he had been rebuked.

He also said he'd only done so once.

Until following up with another letter to senators after his committee confirmation hearing acknowledging that there was one other time, too.

The White House is standing by its delayed nominee.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina had put a hold on Senate confirmation of Southers, contending that he is more interested in fulfilling an Obama campaign promise to unions than protecting national security. In the aftermath of the near-catastrophic lapse in intelligence and security that enabled a known threat to board a U.S.-bound airliner with explosives on Christmas Day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to push Southers' confirmation as soon as the Senate returnshe will invoke cloture.

Southers had given senators a letter in Novemberit was revealed just this week on the Washington Post's Web-sitecorrecting what he called a distortion in his record.

"I am distressed by the inconsistencies between my recollection and the contemporaneous documents, but I assure you that the mistake was inadvertent, and that I have at all times taken full responsibility for what I know to have been a grave error in judgment," Southers wrote in a letter to Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.) chairman and ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

"This incident was over 20 years ago, I was distraught and concerned about my young son, and never in my career since has there been any recurrence of this sort of conduct."

In an October affidavit for the Senate committee, the nominee initially had said that he asked a San Diego police employee to run a background check on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend and was censured by his FBI superiors. He called it an isolated instance. But a day after the committee approved his nomination and sent it to the full Senate, he wrote that he twice had run checks himself.

He said he had forgotten the incident in 1987 or '88.

The letter was first reported by he Post on Thursday. It was dated Nov. 20.

Lieberman aide Leslie Phillips said the senator supports Southers.

"Twenty years ago, Mr. Southers committed a serious error in judgment," Phillips said. "He admitted that error and was disciplined for it. He went on to develop broad knowledge and build an excellent reputation in the areas of security and law enforcement. Mr. Southers was forthcoming about his past censure during his nomination process and about errors he made in recalling the details."

White House officials also are backing him up.

"Southers has never tried to hide this incident and has expressed that these were errors he made in judgment that he deeply regretted and an error that he made in an account of events that happened over 20 years ago," said Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman traveling with Obama on vacation in Hawaii. ""Southers' nomination has not been held up over this as he has been entrusted with significant and increasing responsibilities in the area of homeland security over the years since, but he is being held up by Sen. (Jim) DeMint over a political issue."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also is behind him.

"Erroll brings vast homeland security experience at the federal, state and local levels, along with hands on airport security expertise," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "California is safer and better prepared because of his hard work and dedication. Erroll is a committed public servant and highly qualified for the role."

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