Free Republic

Less than two weeks ago, Tom Ridge launched his memoirs with the explosive allegation that Bush administration officials had pressured him to change terror-threat levels in order to boost George Bush’s re-election chances in the final days of the 2004 election. A day later, the New York Times pointed out that the book not only didn’t have any supporting evidence for that claim, it also had Ridge insisting that he hadn’t seen any political pressure on threat levels. Now Ridge himself has begun to backpedal from his publicity-seeking allegations:

Link only, per FR posting rules. Link is here

Ridge Changes Tune On Terror Alert LevelsPITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 Tom Ridge (File) Alex Wong/Getty Images Close numSlides of totalImages Former Pennsylvania Governor and Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge is calling out former colleagues in the Bush Administration, suggesting they tried to play politics with the terror alert level. The charge comes in a book due out next month. Ridge claims other members of the Cabinet pressured him to raise the terror alert level shortly before the 2004 Presidential election. He says Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pressed him to support increasing...

Former Pennsylvania Governor, Republican Tom Ridge, has released a book in where he alleges that the Bush administration, or Bush himself, pushed for the terror level to be raised before the election, to push him into victory. Over 33,000 google hits register when "Bush raised terror level to win election" is punched into the search engine. Obviously, this myth has been around for a long time.

Ridge: I was urged to raise terror level for re-election @ 11:32 am by Eric Zimmermann Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was pressured to raise the terror threat level in the run-up to President Bush's re-election, the former cabinet secretary will claim in a new tell-all book. Titled "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again," the memoir is intended to rouse Americans from their complacency about security issues, Ridge says. To accomplish that goal, Ridge has included some stunning allegations about his time in the Bush administration. He almost considered resigning after being...

Washington—Having had enough of Limbaugh’s criticism of Colin Powell, Tom Ridge laid down the gauntlet on Rush Limbaugh, and evicting him from the Republican Party. The event took place after the interview on CSPAN’s Washington Journal where Ridge took a strong stance, supporting Colin Powell and blaming Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for having “a mindset,” that doesn’t foster unity.

I hate the word shrill. I mean I have a visceral reaction to it. I'm sure there is a legitimate use for the adjective that denotes a "high-pitched or piercing tone or sound"—like dog training. But I never hear that use of it. Since my radio is more often turned to political than canine news, I get to hear shrill as an ad -hominem, and it makes my skin crawl. "Ridge Calls Limbaugh 'Shrill'" is the silliest headline I have read in ages. It crystallizes all the reasons I find better things to do than follow politics. I picture the...

The year is 2003. Tom Ridge is chatting, explaining what’s going on with Homeland Security, having a seemingly good time. His good natured counterpart in the conversation lets Ridge run with the conversation. The other party in the conversation is Rush Limbaugh. Ridge had called into Rush’s show. Over the past twenty years Rush has been on the air, people like Powell, Ridge, and others have had no problem using Rush to air their policy views, defend themselves, and chat. And in those twenty years, as anyone who has regularly listened to Rush can tell you, the substantive coverage of...

Amid much ballyhoo, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State in the Bush administration, went on "Meet the Press" last October and endorsed Barack Obama for President. His move was no real surprise and had been anticipated for at least a year but he timing and manner of it seemed designed to wreak the maximum political damage to his old friend John McCain. So why does Powell now seem to think he has the right or credibility to lecture Republicans on how their party should be run? Just as he did not just go quietly into the polling booth and vote...

(CNN) — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is taking President Obama to task over his handling of closing the detention center on Guantanamo Bay. In his interview with CNN's John King on State of the Union Sunday, Ridge said Obama "doesn't have a plan" on how to relocate the current detainees, and suggested the president announced he was close the facility prematurely. "Reaching conclusion that you can shut it down without determining the manner in which you were going to adjudicate those who should stay somewhere… How are we going to dispose of them?" he said. "And at the...

Ridge takes aim at 'shrill' Limbaugh Posted: 09:00 AM ET From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney (CNN) — Pennsylvania Republican Tom Ridge is taking direct aim at Rush Limbaugh, telling CNN's John King the conservative talk radio host can be "shrill" and uses language in a way "that offend very many." "Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 million people. A lot of people listen daily to him and live by every word. But words mean things and how you use words is very important," Ridge, the former Homeland Security Secretary under President Bush, said during an interview airing Sunday...

n his audacious attack on a sitting president last week, Mr Cheney declared that America was less safe from terrorism after Mr Obama's decision to abandon violent interrogation methods and close Guantanamo. But once the cheering had died down on talk radio and cable television, discordant voices emerged from the Right to challenge Mr Cheney's defence of the Bush-era legacy. "Yeah, I disagree with Dick Cheney," said Tom Ridge, who was appointed by the Bush-Cheney administration to set up and run the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on America. Mr Ridge spoke out...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two top Bush-era officials on Friday rejected ex-vice president Dick Cheney's scathing criticism of US President Barack Obama, saying the country's national security was not in jeopardy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in the same post under former president George W. Bush, and Tom Ridge, the former head of homeland security, both voiced disagreement with Cheney a day after he attacked Obama's performance as the new commander-in-chief. Gates said in an interview that opponents of Obama's decision to close the "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo were engaging in "fear-mongering," a reference to Cheney's stance on...

A former GOP presidential nominee claims conservatives "want to drive all the moderates and liberals out," which would mean that "the Democrats would win every election." An ex-Republican National Committee chairman agrees, saying the party's "image has been badly disfigured." A rising-star moderate GOP congressman says his party is on its way to being "extinguished" and "reduced to ashes" by conservatives, adding that he sees it as his job "to help the GOP rebuild and to help give it proper direction."

"It's a wonderful country, this America. It's called a secret ballot," former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said Thursday -- as he refused to pledge his support to former Congressman Pat Toomey over recent Republican-turned-Democratic incumbent Arlen Specter for his homestate's 2010 Senate race. Ridge's comment came in response to this question posed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "If you had to vote between Toomey, the conservative Republican, or Specter, the ex-Republican, who would you vote for?" With his refusal, Tom Ridge made clear that he really is through with electoral politics -- because he'll never, ever earn the support of conservative...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge will not run for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he announced today. "After careful consideration and many conversations with friends and family and the leadership of my party, I have decided not to seek the Republican nomination for Senate," Ridge said in a statement.

For those writing Republican centrism’s obituary after Arlen Specter’s party switch, holster your quills. In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party. The month of May will be huge, recruiting-wise, for Senate Republicans, with decisions expected from several big-name candidates, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and possibly Rep. Mike Castle (Del.). All would instantly be formidable — with Crist and Castle favored at the outset — and all are...

Another RINO knows he will not win! http://www.pa2010.com/2009/05/breaking-news-ridge-wont-run-for-senate/

Tom Ridge announced today that he will not seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in next year's primary.

Tom Ridge running for the U.S. Senate is the best case scenario for Pennsylvania Republicans. Consider the facts: the man has never lost an election in the Keystone State. He developed a record as a proven fiscal conservative as Governor, holding government spending to at or below the rate of inflation and cutting taxes by over $2 billion, while squirreling away boom-time revenues for a $1 billion rainy-day fund. A much decorated Vietnam veteran and local prosecutor, he’s strong on national security and law and order - a profile he only added to as the first Director of Homeland Security...