Tom Ridge Lamely Walks Back Terror Alert Claims in Maddow Interview

When former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge’s book first came out, there was a lot of vigorous overselling of the tome as a smoking gun in the politicization of terror alerts. While Ridge’s book seems to indicate he had concerns that efforts to raise the alert level might have been political, it is hardly proof of that.

However, Ridge appeared on last night’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” and promptly tried to walk back even that suspicion. Here’s the relevant part of the interview. Note Ridge’s careful, repetitive construction that “the system worked” and “we didn’t go up”:

There are multiple red flags in this interview, not the least of which is Ridge’s repeated obfuscations on the question of whether he thought efforts to raise the alert might have been political. Maddow asks him, essentially, if anyone tried to abuse the alert system, and Ridge responds, essentially, by saying that no-one succeeded at it.

Then, Rachel asks him about the part where he says that the episode confirmed his decision to leave DHS, and Ridge has no explanation beyond a “less than artful” juxtaposition.

Finally, Ridge volunteers this odd bit of information:

“After that, I learned that some people actually recalled there may have been a political discussion, I don’t recall that.”

Am I the only one who’s getting a strong sense of de’ja vu here? Does this sound a little bit like CYA?

As I’ve said before, people have already made their judgments on this issue, based on the available facts. Ridge just doesn’t seem willing to stand by his.

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