Ridge’s Groveling Tour: I Never Meant To Accuse The Bush Administration Of Politicizing Homeland Security
Ridge’s Groveling Tour: I Never Meant To Accuse The Bush Administration Of Politicizing Homeland Security
A few weeks ago, former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was thrust back into the public spotlight with news of his upcoming book, which is out today. Of particular interest was Ridge’s revelation that officials may have pushed him to raise the security alert level for political reasons on eve of Bush’s re-election. An excerpt from the book:
A vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion ensured. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld. There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. 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. … I consider the episode to be not only a dramatic moment in Washington’s recent history, but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, credibility and security.
Ridge was immediately ripped by loyal Bushies for speaking out. A spokesman for former attorney general John Ashcroft said, “Now would be a good time for Mr. Ridge to use his emergency duct tape.”
Ridge is now trying to get back into their good graces. He has been on an apology tour this week, insisting that he never meant to insinuate any bad motives on his former colleagues. Yesterday he groveled to Sean Hannity on Fox News, and today he went on CNN and is scheduled to talk with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC tonight. He also gave an interview to ABC’s Political Punch podcast. In all the appearances he criticized people for misinterpreting what he had written:
– But there’s never been any doubt in my mind that any of these individuals, Secretary Powell, Attorney General Ashcroft, Secretary Rumsfeld, the FBI Director Mueller, they’ve always had the security of America as the number one reason they would say, let’s go up or let’s not go up. I don’t think it ever was politics.” [CNN, 9/1/09]
– “”Is there any other reason that’s out there and perhaps this — expressed it unartfully — but I’m not suggesting that anybody in that room on that occasion or any other occasion was interested in doing anything other than the right thing to protect America.” [ABC, 9/1/09]
– “I was musing in the book, as I was trying to think back on those discussions. … Is there something else that I am missing or my department’s missing? Pure and simple. It’s not an accusatory statement. Wasn’t intended to be. And if people want to talk about it in that fashion, in this world — see, security is not black and white.” [Fox News, 8/31/09]
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Wow – good for him he didn’t say anything about Rush, too. It’d take years of bowing and scraping to recover from that.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:11 pmI think Little Tommy Ridge was confronted with a choice — either recant the passage in his book or go quail-hunting with a drunken Darth Cheney.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:14 pmWas Ridge just a distraction. He came up for breath, then stuck his head right back up in Cheneys ass.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pmThe only time you can get a Republican to tell the truth is by catching them off-guard. Once they have time to consider the blowback, they return to lying as usual.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pmSounds like he has been threatened.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pmsee, security is not black and white
Except for the colors in the terror alerts, “black or white” was EXACTLY how the Bush “either-with-us-or-against-us Administration played security issues.
Mr. Ridge, if you decide to work with the pigs, don’t complain about the mud and smell that gets on you.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:17 pm# 5 Quayle – same thing occurred to me. Why is he so afraid?
September 1st, 2009 at 12:22 pmIt was coincidence, yeah, that’s it…
September 1st, 2009 at 12:22 pmRidge was just one of the cat’s paw lackeys of the big boys.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:24 pmSomeone must’ve explained how his future earnings might be affected by a misinterpretation of that passage from the book.
Remember – this is a guy who’s going to have to count on the Wingnut Welfare System for the rest of his life. They cut checks for ball-players, not truth-tellers.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:28 pmIt’s too bad (and all too predictable) that Ridge puts protecting war criminals ahead of his country. Truly patriotic.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pmtombaker says:
They cut checks for ball-players, not truth-tellers.
____________
They cut checks for ball-lickers, not truth-tellers…
There… now… isn’t that what you REALLY meant to say?
September 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pmGee… is Ridge’s publisher busy redacting certain sections of the book as we all mock him?
September 1st, 2009 at 12:33 pmSurrender Monkey!!!
September 1st, 2009 at 12:34 pmhmmm… let’s hope he regrets that maddow appearance…
she’s the best…
September 1st, 2009 at 12:36 pmI am so sick of these vile stupid repiggies.
This country would be so much better off without that trash.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:41 pmIt is obvious he has been spanked by the GOP or he when wouldn’t be out on his “oh no you misunderstand” tour. Will someone who interviews him ask who in the party has pressured him to recant his truth telling? Is it possible he still thinks he may have a future political career? I heard that he bought a house in Maryland, so I guess he won’t be running in Pennslyvannia anytime soon, he can’t believe he has any shot a GOP nomination, being pro choice. What are we missing? There is more to the story yet to come.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:43 pmWhy did they ever bother to create a 5 color system?
They only used two: Be-Scared Yellow and B-More-Scared Orange
Red would have caused a panic, and blue and green didn’t help them politically.
Gotta keep the rubes scared of browns, blacks, pinks, yellows, and fictional sky-beings
September 1st, 2009 at 12:45 pmHope this boot licker didn’t spend his advance. This pretty much kills what few sales he might have generated. The wingnuts won’t read it because disloyalty to the reich is the one sin they will not tolerate, liberals won’t touch it with him disclaiming everything that might seem insightful and the apolitical don’t have any idea who he is to begin with.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:48 pmTom Ridge is not very smart is he?
Ever notice how RePugniScums pick looks over intelligence everytime?
He looks like Dick Tracy, but, he’s just a dick.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:48 pmHe wants to have it both ways, apparently: keep his buddies and have me buy his book. Nice try, bush bot.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:50 pmYep, saw that one coming.
*sigh*
September 1st, 2009 at 12:55 pmwell he sure knows how to sell his book,,,, place a quote out like he did. then went it gets released every one want it ti read about the dirt in it.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:57 pmbesides he can always say something like no that snot what i meant.
wiz – send those questions to rachel@msnbc.com …
who knows…
September 1st, 2009 at 12:58 pmI think he got scared of the Teabagging/Deather/Birther loonies!
September 1st, 2009 at 1:03 pmOne good thing that has come out of the past 6 months. Any Republican who even whispers flip flop in the direction of a Democrat can be drowned in clips of these bozos.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:08 pmThey could quit being so transparent about their career destruction extortion. I mean, this is really obvious.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:08 pmIf a Republican has too much of a spine, he cannot properly slither.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:22 pmShorter Ridge: “See, when I said ‘politics’, what I actually meant was ‘hockey pucks’.”
His flopping around like a boated mackerel should just do wonders for his book sales…
September 1st, 2009 at 1:28 pmHe wants it both ways. First , he stirs up the buzz about the alerts. It’s all over the news. Then he backpedals, so as not to offend his old masters. He gets to be talked about in the news again.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:32 pmIt’s all about selling the book. He’s even going to be on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today.
He’s a Republic who can always find his way.
How, you ask?
Well, he backtracks so often he can follow his own footsteps forward.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:43 pmWell, I was hoping that Ridge may actually be taking steps towards redemption. Looks like he’s turned back, though.
The other problem I see is that a statement made on TV would probably have trouble being admissible to court.
What a shame.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:47 pmTool!
In every sense of the word.
September 1st, 2009 at 2:18 pmIf it wasn’t politics, what WAS the reason for raising the threat level? And wasn’t that Bin Laden video two days before the 2004 election suspiciously convenient for Bush?
September 1st, 2009 at 2:33 pmApparently Tom got the threat about sleeping with the fishes for bad-mouthing the Bush family mafia.
September 1st, 2009 at 2:39 pmFlip flopping like a fish out of water. It is all about sell books.
September 1st, 2009 at 2:46 pmImagine, Ridge was Governor of my home state Pennsylvania and Santorum was a Senator. You don’t need to go South of the Mason Dixon line to find gullible people willing to elect charlatans and self promoters.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:14 pmThey discussed raising a phony “terror alert” just in time for the election, but opted for a phony “Bin Laden alert” instead.
No politics involved…
September 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pmEveryone but everyone knows it was political except Ridge! What a blockhead.
September 1st, 2009 at 7:05 pmMaybe cheney introduced Mr. Ridge to his personal henchmen. You know, the black ops assassin ring.
September 1st, 2009 at 7:11 pmkwsventures says:
Another punkass trollpost by you. As usual for you its all about the stupid. It is OBVIOUS as it was at the TIME that the alerts were political. One of them was based on two year old information. Burry your head in the sand. Keep blathering your abject stupidity. No one in their right mind takes you seriously anyway
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 amvery thanks for article!
September 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am