Rather than using the latest breach to seek political advantage, we should be trying to actually improve airline security.

Despite the philosophical differences between Democrats and Republicans, you would think one area they could agree on would be protecting our airports from terrorists. Sadly, that has not been the case.

Instead, some have politicized the issue. President Obama's renewed plea for bipartisanship in his State of the Union speech Wednesday is unlikely to change that.

Two examples of crass political partisanship come to mind. First, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said recently on Good Morning America, "We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama." In an embarrassing lapse, host George Stephanopoulos failed to challenge Giuliani on his error. Not only was Bush president during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; Giuliani was New York's mayor at the time.

The next day, Giuliani attempted to clarify his comment, telling CNN: "What I usually say when I say that - I usually say we had no major domestic attacks under President Bush since September 11. I did omit the words 'since September 11.' I apologized for that."

But Giuliani omitted more than a few words. He omitted critical facts.

There were additional attacks on the United States under Bush, including the anthrax scare in which five Americans were killed and another 17 were injured.

And who can forget al-Qaeda member Richard Reid's boarding a plane in Miami with plastic explosives hidden in his shoes? Although the bomb failed to ignite, the incident led airports to require passengers to remove their shoes during the screening process.

In a second case of crass partisanship, Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) and others forced the withdrawal of Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and counterterrorism expert who was Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration. DeMint said " ... many Americans aren't aware that the president's nominee to lead the TSA appears ready to give union bosses the power to veto or delay future security improvements at our airports."

Again, the rhetoric didn't match reality. Southers had said he wouldn't take a position on collective bargaining until after he was sworn in. Moreover, the decision would likely be made by higher-ups at the White House and Department of Homeland Security.

DeMint's concern about unionized airport security comes late in the game. Airlines already negotiate with the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, and other unions.

 Law enforcement officers, firefighters, and paramedics around the country are organized as well. So what's the big deal? We're not less safe because many first responders are members of unions.

Instead of playing politics with airport security, Republicans and Democrats should be moving quickly to address the serious threats at our airports. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano got it wrong when she said "the system worked" in the case of the attempted Christmas bombing. It didn't.

Nor did it work when the TSA posted a copy of its "Screening Management Operating Procedures" manual online. Although the version posted for potential federal contractors was redacted, the original version could be accessed with PitStop Pro, an add-on for the widely used Adobe Acrobat program.

The purpose of the manual was to provide uniform standards for inspecting airline passengers and their luggage to prevent weapons or bombs from being taken aboard U.S. aircrafts. Such sensitive information could be deadly in the wrong hands.

Instead of continuing the political squabbling, we should be scurrying to come up with ways to prevent security-related documents from being exposed to our adversaries, and finding more effective approaches to tightening airport security.

For example, we should consider what some call an "Israelification" of our airport security. Israel, which faces constant threats, has a six-tiered security system - beginning with a roadside check when a vehicle approaches the airport - and places a greater emphasis on the behavior of passengers, rather than whether or not they are carrying liquids in small containers.

Security forces at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv pride themselves not only on being exacting, but also on doing so in less time than U.S. security typically takes.

These are the kind of substantive matters we should be discussing in America - not whether one political party does a better job of protecting national security than the other.

George Curry is a former Washington correspondent and New York bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune. He can be reached at gcurry@phillynews.com