Officials: Ridge to announce resignation (CNN) -- Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge will announce Tuesday afternoon that he is stepping down from his post, DHS officials have told CNN. Ridge, 59, is expected to make the announcement at 2:45 p.m. ET. He told his senior staff of the decision this morning, after which an e-mail was sent to the department's 180,000 employees, the officials said. People close to the former two-term governor of Pennsylvania said he will likely remain at the helm of the agency until a successor is confirmed, and he has not decided what he will do next. Ridge is the first secretary of the department, which was created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. It folded 22 agencies into one organization with the job of developing and coordinating a national strategy to protect against terrorist threats or attacks in the United States. Some observers feel the enormity of the job challenged his management expertise, but they gave him high marks for the public face he gave the department. Perhaps his highest-profile move was to oversee the creation of the color-coded threat-warning system. According to The Associated Press, he presided over six national "orange alerts, " which indicated there was a high risk of terrorist attacks. Some outside analysts also felt that Ridge lost a number of important battles and said they were hoping his replacement would be able to get more money -- and therefore more clout -- for the department. Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security, who oversees 110,000 employees, is a possible successor. Hutchinson, whose enforcement of customs and immigration laws has drawn criticism for being ham-fisted, served as a Republican congressman from Arkansas from 1997 until 2001. Others who might be considered for the post include White House adviser on homeland security Frances Townsend, whose experience includes stints in the Coast Guard and the White House. He is regarded as someone who has the ear and respect of the president. Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts, is also among possible contenders. He was a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee and the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Ridge was twice elected governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1995 to 2001. He was known for his aggressive technology strategy that helped fuel the state's advances in economic development, education, health and the environment. The administration has been busy in the weeks since the November 2 election, which has seen the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. So far, Bush has named four replacements, all close associates. He nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft, Condoleezza Rice, his national security advisor and trusted confidant, to take over at the State Department and domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to replace Paige. On Monday, Bush selected Carlos Gutierrez to be the next commerce secretary, replacing Evans. All of the Cabinet nominees must be confirmed by the Senate. Ridge, in the past, has declined to be specific when answering questions regarding his future as head of the department. In July there were reports Ridge told colleagues he was considering stepping down after the November election because of job stresses and the need to earn money in the private sector to pay his children's college costs.
What college are his children going to? I'd assume being a cabinet member pays well enough. Not bashing him, just wondering.
must be difficult to reconcile your preconceptions about republicans, and this administration, with the reality that this admin is the most ethnically diverse in US history, and has placed blacks in greater positions of authority than any other. clinton talked the talk, W just gets it done.
Putting a face of a certain color in a position isn't getting it done. Enacting policies that are beneficial to a community or advancing civil rights is getting it done. Bush could have appointed a whole cabinet full of Clarence Thomas types, and that wouldn't be getting it done. He would have an entire cabinet of African Americans, but it wouldn't be advancing civil rights at all.
Classic! This Administration is the most ethnically diverse in US History. Men and women of all colors and nationalities....lining up as Yes Men. The only thing W gets done is quashing dissent.
I'm wondering if anyone could run this department well. The whole thing seems pretty half-baked to me. I think Ridge did a good job considering the amount of expecations placed on him and the amount of red tape and bureaucratic infighting. I initially like the idea but this seems but it seems bad in execution.
Exactly, FB, throwing some minorities into positions of power is not "getting it done" in a substantial way. It is politically, but finding people of color to parrot the party line is really not very tough. It just proves that you can find black, latinos and aisans who either ignorant of for sale as much as you can a white person. This just in: water is wet. Finding complex solutions to the complex issues of race and ethnicity is very tough, though, and I doubt that having Condi Rice blowing smoke is particularly helpful to the statistically improbable clusters of predominantly black kids in West Philly who wake up every morning and go to a crap school. I'd love to see Bush take a crack at that one. (cue music: "No Child Left Behind!")
It's amazing that the grand masters of incompetence, and architects of the greatest foreign policy embarrassment/tragedy/failure in the last few decades, which was due in no small part to their negligence/ignorance/willful blindness, have survived the Bush cabinet purges. I mean, on the scale of sheer incompetence, Ashcroft's pathetic record probably technically marks him as the most inept - though Rod Paige is not far behind. However, in terms of damage wrought that is attributable to negligence/incompetence/stupidity, the Cheney/Rummy/Wolfy/Feithy/Perley cabal certainly takes the cake. There's no election to worry about anymore, I don't see why accountability is still taboo - even the most fervent war supporter can't ignore these guys' failures with respect ot post war Iraq - for which nobody has ever been held accountable except a few hapless dupes dropped into the middle of a sh-tstorm like Jay Garner.
looks like NPR agrees about the Bush cabinet: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101041213-880301,00.html " WHAT'S MORE DIVERSE THESE DAYS — NPR OR PRESIDENT BUSH'S CABINET? Bush's Cabinet. It is ironic that a Republican President has an Administration that is more inclusive and more diverse than a so-called liberal-media-elite network."
That was interesting. I listen to Tavis Smiley show a couple times a week. Smiley did not say the administration just gets it done. As he said later in the article from a quote... "All my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk." Bush has reached out to include minorities in his cabinet, but has done little to benefit those communities. That doesn't make Bush a champion of civil rights or anything.
