Nov 30 2004
Ridge out
Ridge Resigns Homeland Security Post WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Ridge, named the nation’s first homeland security secretary after the Sept. 11 attacks, announced Tuesday that he is resigning after three years of reworking American security and presiding over color-coded terror alerts. He’s the seventh Bush Cabinet officer leaving so far.
Ridge presided over the most significant government reorganization in 50 years. He’ll be remembered for his terror alerts and tutorials about how to prepare for possible attacks, including the controversial “disaster kits” that caused last year’s run on duct tape and plastic sheeting.
So the king of the color codes is leaving. It’s no surprise, since he has been saying for some time that he would. No great loss, really. His only purpose was to issue terror alerts whenever George dipped in the polls.
Many on the right are saying that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Ridge because there have been no al-Quaeda attacks on U.S. soil in the three years since 9/11. Just out of curiosity, how many were there before 9/11? (One, that I can recall - the 1993 bombing of the WTC - eight years prior to 9/11.)
