Crickets
National Review’s response to former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s allegation that Bush pressured him to raise the terror alert status on the eve of the 2004 election is this stirring post from Kathryn Jean Lopez:
But how can someone whose title is director of homeland security not resign if he believes the security of the homeland is being compromised in some way by the White House? How do you wait all these years before saying something?
An excellent question. But if Ridge’s actions are less than honorable, what does that say about the man who appointed him, particularly when his proposed successor was the notoriously corrupt Bernie Kerik?
“After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector,” Ridge, who resigned soon after the election where Bush defeated Democrat John F. Kerry, writes…
K-LO is the hack’s hack. A sort of Uber-water carrier.Report
…I thought he *DID* resign.Report
In defeat, malice; in victory, revenge.
In the face of evidence we don’t like, deny, obfuscate, and conflate.Report
Actually, it’s not a good question. Ridge resigned pretty shortly thereafter, submitting his resignation on December 1, 2004. Additionally, he was complaining publicly about the Bush Administration’s attitudes towards the threat level as early as May 2005:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-10-ridge-alerts_x.htm
That does not include an outright accusation of politicization of raising the threat level, but so far as I can tell, his book doesn’t either – it just says he suspected that politicization was the motive. I can see a good-faith rationale for, in May 2005 (when Bush was still in office), only saying that there was little basis to raise the threat level, which is a statement you can back up with facts, and in August 2009 admitting that you were also suspicious of politicization, which questions the motives of the President and thus inherently cannot be backed by hard evidence.Report
I noticed this earlier. Her second question has one easy answer that’s sympathetic to Ridge: Ridge could be concerned about, you know, undermining our entire national security apparatus in a time of crisis with our involvement in two wars and worry about multiple terrorist threats. This concern might trump his more personally troubling doubts about political chicanery interfering with DHS’s work.
The unsympathetic reason is that Ridge filed the incident away under “memoirs” because, really, for someone in the thick of it through all of this, if that’s the most intrigue he can come up with he really needs it to move some books.
Some people ask leading questions to condemn someone. K-Lo is actually that clueless.Report
My sense is that KLo’s perception of how public officials resign is based on a close reading of the Tom Clancy/Dan Brown wing of public policy scholarship, in which statesmen abruptly rise from the table, shout “This will not stand!” or some such, then resign effective immediately.
Also, your post tags are redundant.Report
The President: How dare you come in here and lecture me!
Jack Ryan: How dare you, sir!Report