Apparently some consigliere must have gotten to Tom Ridge, because now he says that he wasn't pressured by other officials to ramp up the terror alert prior to the 2004 election.
"I'm not second-guessing my colleagues," Ridge said in an interview about The Test of Our Times, which comes out Tuesday and recounts his experiences as head of the nation's homeland security efforts in the first several years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Really, Tom? What are we supposed to think when we see something like this?
Noting that Bush's approval ratings typically went up when the threat level was raised, Ridge writes that Ashcroft and Rumsfeld pushed to elevate it during a "vigorous" discussion.
"Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level, and was supported by Rumsfeld," he writes. "There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?' "
Now, Ridge tells his hometown paper, the Erie Times-News, that it was merely a difference of opinion between himself, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft. That's a major understatement--a phrase I never thought I'd use in connection with anything related to the Bush administration and homeland security.
In another discouraging note about Ridge, he now thinks that it would be "criminal" to see if any CIA interrogators violated the law. This despite the fact he thinks waterboarding was wrong. Make up your mind, Tom.