Posted on 08/22/2009 4:18:28 PM PDT by RobinMasters
I used to admire Tom Ridge. After reading Peter Baker in The New York Times, I have to say, I've lost a lot of respect for the man.
By now you've probably heard about Ridge's allegation that he faced political pressure to change the Homeland Security Department's threat level in 2004.
The most sensational assertion was the pre-election debate in 2004 about the threat level, first reported by U.S. News & World Report. Mr. Ridge writes that the bin Laden tape alone did not justify a change in the nation’s security posture but describes “a vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion” on Oct. 30 to do so.
“There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None,” he writes. “I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’ Post-election analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president’s approval rating in the days after the raising of the threat level.”
But Baker, to his great credit, then states the obvious:
Mr. Ridge provides no evidence that politics motivated the discussion. Until now, he has denied politics played a role in threat levels. Asked by Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times if politics ever influenced decisions on threat warnings, he volunteered to take a lie-detector test. “Wire me up,” Mr. Ridge said, according to Mr. Lichtblau’s book, “Bush’s Law.” “Not a chance. Politics played no part.”
(Excerpt) Read more at agenda.nationalreview.com ...
...Oops.
Pennsylvania sure produces some odd people...
And just who pays any attention to their idiotic yellow, orange and red signals. It doesn’t make a rats a$$ bet of difference.
Ridge was an idiot, is an idiot and will remain an idiot.
If he wants proof, just let him run for office.
I told the kid, just take it, but understand this....AMERICAN Citizens have just about had enough of this sh*t. Why don't you guys do something productive besides wrenching nail clippers away from Grandmaw and ensuring that I don't get to shave for the next few days before I can get into town to buy some more.
yeah, I never liked ridge...especially when he went to work for some middle east country.
Thank God we didn’t let those jackass RINOS talk us into putting this guy up against Specter.
Has anyone bothered to read the Ridge’s book to get a feel for the content and context of the statement? Oddly, I don’t have much faith in the seat of journalistic fraud—the NYTimes.
Just another RINO always was and will always be...
Tom Ridge - a legend in his own mind.
It helps me select my socks each morning.
So to sum it all up:
A tape from Osama bin Laden threatens new attacks
Officials tell Ridge this may be cause for a heightened alert. Ridge wonders if this could somehow be political.
Thats it? Thats the “scandal”?
I can’t believe this moron actually was Gov. I thank him for his military service, but that’s it!
Has he been hangin’ out with Colin Powell?
That's more than I can say.
So Mr. Ridge didn’t think a threat tape from OBL wasn’t serious enough to raise the threat level.
I guess if you are among those who will be rushed to safety in the event of an attack, then he was right.
For the rest of us.........he didn’t give a damn.
And can we go back to profiling and stop bothering the blonde blue-eyed people who are not on any lists? My sister had to go through ridiculous measures and she was wearing a boot cast at the time. They made her go back and forth through security so she didn’t have time to check her bag and all of her liquids had to be tossed, that she had planned to check. They owe her at least $40 bucks for the hair and skin products they made her leave on the ground. Idiots.
Could someone help me here? I’m trying to remember what year it was that Islamic terrorists set off bombs in Spain just before an election for a national leader? And didn’t it cause a complete change in Spain’s national policy?
I’m also trying to figure out just how Ridge and his departement’s experts were so sure bombings for the same reason could not have happened here. Any ideas on this one?
Ridge is the proverbial bucket-of-warm spit RINO.
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