Are you just NOW getting to this?
This has to go under the "What the hell are they thinking"? category. Do they expect a former Vice President with delusions of Presidential asperations to bomb or hijack an airplane? Do they expect a Congressman in good standing to bomb the White House? There's a time to be non-discriminatory and color and race blind, and there's a time to say, "Hmmmmmm. Do we search a former American-born Vice President, or do we search and do background checks on this Islamic crop dusting student who may or may not be in the country illegally with a fake visa or a fake ID?"
Irregardless of whether or not they our elected officials (or former elected officials) they should be expected to go through the same things that we have to.
Why do you want to give someone a free pass because they were elected to a job?
I'll agree with you that the security measure are ineffective, but everyone knew that they would be ineffective to begin with. (The hijackers didn't use guns, they used knives and no metal detecter in the world is going to detect a fiberglass knife.)
The sole purpose of the security measures was to reassure the public that the government was doing 'something' to prevent planes from being hijacked/bombed. There's no greater mechanism to prove to people that anyone/everyone is going to be searched than to start at the top (ie: elected officials).