Former Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin tells USA TODAY that the nation is still highly vulnerable to a terrorist attack, and calls the agency he used to oversee "a huge, dysfunctional bureaucracy."

Clark Kent Ervin . . . said in an interview last week that airport security isn't tight enough and that little has been done to safeguard other forms of mass transit. Ervin said ports remain vulnerable to terrorists trying to smuggle weapons into the country. He added that immigration and customs investigators are hampered in their efforts to track down illegal immigrants because they often lack gas money for their cars.

"There are still all these security gaps in the country that have yet to be closed," Ervin said. Meanwhile, he added, Homeland Security officials have wasted millions of dollars because of "chaotic and disorganized" accounting practices, lavish spending on social occasions and employee bonuses and a failure to require competitive bidding for some projects.

Asked what's wrong with the department, he said, "It's difficult to figure out where to start."

Ervin lost his job this month in mysterious fashion. Appointed by President Bush in December 2003 when Congress was out of session, Ervin was never confirmed by the Senate. Nor was he renominated by the White House this month when his "recess appointment" — which lasted until the congressional session ended — expired Dec. 8.

A key senator won't say why. Elissa Davidson, spokeswoman for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wouldn't comment on why Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, never held confirmation hearings for Ervin. "The decision not to renominate Clark Kent Ervin was purely a White House decision," she said.

This "good news" White House really doesn't like its bad news guys, does it? And that's understandable up to a point, I suppose, at least from a purely political perspective. Unfortunately, though, those are probably the very voices we need to hear on national security issues; just think, for example, how different things might be today if this administration had listened to men like Richard Clarke and Rand Beers and Eric Shinseki instead of telling them to sit down and shut up.

The saddest words of tongue or pen, indeed. So let's just hope that Clark Kent Ervin's name stays off that distinguished but deeply dispiriting list.