Former U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce, who is running for his former seat in Congress, called for the resignation or firing of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on his campaign blog late Wednesday evening. Pearce cited “three strikes” against the former Arizona governor, including the recent failed Christmas Day terror attack on an airplane over Detroit.

In addition to the Christmas Day “underwear bomber” attack, Pearce said the Fort Hood shooting by U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan and a report on right-wing extremism issued earlier this year are reasons why Napolitano should step down or be fired from her cabinet-level position.

The Department of Homeland Security report on domestic rightwing extremism followed a report on domestic left-wing extremism two months earlier. The report on right-wing extremism caused an outcry in the conservative blogosphere.

Pearce wrote of the right-wing extremism report, “The document never once mentions the radical jihadists who are in this country and wish to ‘annihilate America and annihilate Americans.’”

As for Hasan, Pearce wrote:

Instead of heeding the warnings about this domestic terror threat and stopping him, Secretary Napolitano again missed the obvious while still clinging to the belief that if you are a veteran, or pro-lifer, if you attend church or are stockpiling food for bad economic times, then you are more of a threat than the terrorists who have been identified by the system.

A report on underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is expected to be released later today.

Napolitano has been under fire for saying “the system worked” in the case of Abdulmatullab. Washington Independent reporter Spencer Ackerman writes that this quote is taken out of context:

How hard is it to watch a clip of an interview? Yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano made the following observation about the aftermath of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempted detonation of Northwest Airlines Flight 253:

Once this incident occurred, everything went according to clockwork, not only sharing throughout the air industry, but also sharing with state and local law enforcement. Products were going out on Christmas Day, they went out yesterday, and also to the [airline] industry to make sure that the traveling public remains safe. I would leave you with that message. The traveling public is safe. We have instituted some additional screening and security measures, in light of this incident, but, again, everyone reacted as they should. The system, once the incident occurred, the system worked.

Pearce is not the only person to be calling for Napolitano’s resignation; Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., called for her resignation on December 29. A number of conservatives called for her resignation in the wake of the Abdulmatullab attack, which was thwarted by a fellow passenger on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Napolitano is not the first Homeland Security Secretary to face calls for resignation; many, including Senate Majority Harry Reid, D-Nev., called for the resignation of Michael Chertoff after the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina. FEMA is a part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Update:

Scott Forrester, the executive director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, responded to Pearce’s call for Napolitano’s resignation. Forrester said in an e-mail to the New Mexico Independent, “Considering that Steve Pearce voted multiple times against making the recommendations of the non-partisan 9-11 Commission the law of the land, Pearce’s overheated rhetoric on national security should be seen as nothing more than it is: hypocrisy.”