LAX Jerks Dick Around

An anonymous source queued up at LAX Terminal One witnessed a little political theater Thursday. Ex-mayor Richard Riordan ducked around a barricade through a staff entrance in an attempt to cut ahead of 500 people who were patiently waiting at a security checkpoint. Presumably, Riordan thought that airport employees would recognize him. They didn't. He was chewed out by Southwest security and sent outside to the back of the line. People end-running up escalators and around security have been known, of course, to shut airports down in the recent past. Still, although we never mind seeing politicians taken down a notch, we can't help finding ourselves bemused and somewhat saddened that the man who only a few years ago was running a joint like LAX can't even make it now through the side door. It's certainly a different world from the one Dick came up in. Shame, though, that the film crew from A&E's Airline wasn't readily on hand to document everyone's humiliation (including security's, when they finally figured out who they'd been yelling at.) Can anyone imagine this happening to Rudy Giuliani at JFK?