Ridge is the real loser

In last Saturday’s “Winners and Losers” section of the Ft. Wayne Daily Fish Wrap, the editorial board decided that the “Bush administration” was a loser because of unsubstantiated charges made by former Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge. Lex sent a love note to the editors:

Real losers:

Tom Ridge, in effort to sell books to enrich himself, has made an UNSUPPORTED charge that top advisers to President George W. Bush wanted to raise the national threat level just before the 2004 election. Ridge SUSPECTED the move was political.

First, I SUSPECT that setting the national threat level is a bit like judging Dancing with the Stars in that there is a lot of subjectivity involved in both. Second, Ridge has not provided one piece of evidence to support the notion that politics motivated the setting of threat levels. Next, we used to raise the threat level for the Super Bowl, the World Series, national holidays like the 4th of July, Christmas (and yes Christmas is STILL a national holiday) etc. We STILL raise the threat level in places like Iraq and Afghanistan during their NATIONAL ELECTIONs. So is it really that far fetched that some well-intended bureaucrat might think it a good idea to raise the national threat level during our own elections?

Last, while researching a book, NY Times reporter Eric Lichtblau asked Ridge if politics played any part in setting the threat level. Ridge responded, “[There’s] not a chance. Politics played no part.” Up to the point that Ridge needed to sell some books of his own, he has maintained that politics never entered into the equation for setting the threat level.

Besides Ridge, the other big losers in this mess are the small-minded willfully ignorant buffoons who populate the editorial boards of dying newspapers in small and mid-sized communities. It seems it is more important to these “losers” to advance their political agenda than the truth. So as circulation dwindles, the editorial board decides all we need is more Eugene Robinson, more Garrison - my head is so full of rocks I can’t hold it up – Keillor, more LA Times rip-offs and a more predictably leftist stand on everything. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Good luck with that.