GOP Rep: 'TSA could screw up a two-car funeral'

A Republican Congressman who supports the use of full-body scanners blasted the Transportation Security Administration on Friday for failing to deploy technology that would prevent the scanners from capturing images of private body parts.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) told CNN's Anderson Cooper he hasn't had a change of heart about his initial support for the scanners following the attacks on 9/11, but faulted TSA for deploying equipment he termed "invasive."

"They [TSA] went ahead and, without consulting us [Congress], bought, to me, offensive equipment that should not be used, and it does invade the privacy of people," Mica said. "We need this kind of equipment, but it can be done the right way. TSA could screw up a two-car funeral."

In a stark reversal of the Bush years, it fell to the Democrat, Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security chairwoman Sheila Jackson-Lee to defend the Department of Homeland Security by invoking the spectre of 9/11.

"Frankly, Anderson, I would like everybody to be reminded that we might have wanted to have this kind of equipment on 9/11," Jackson-Lee said. "This is a different America and a different world. And so we have to confront issues head on."

Jackson-Lee acknowledged joining a letter sent to TSA Administrator John Pistole on Friday by Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) urging him to reconsider the controversial pat-down procedures for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but said the letter wasn't aimed at stopping the pat-downs but preventing them from being administered to children or in other inappropriate situations.

"I don't want them to stop. I do want the public to be informed," she said. " I want to make sure that children are not patted down in the incorrect manner."

Mica also spoke out in favor of privatizing TSA, a proposal that Jackson-Lee said would be akin to reverting to conditions before 9/11.