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Tom Ridge flip-flops about raising terror alerts to help Bush win re-election in 2004
Gather ^ | 8/31/09 | Savo Heleta

Posted on 09/01/2009 3:55:05 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta

Tom Ridge, former US Secretary of Homeland Security, has written in his new book that he was pressured by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft to "raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004."

He explains that "Bush's approval ratings typically went up when the threat level was raised, adding that Ashcroft and Rumsfeld pushed to elevate it during a vigorous discussion."

After a number of former Bush administration officials called these claims "nonsense," Tom Ridge has decided to flip-flop on the issue, writes the USA Today.

He now says that this never happened and that he "did not mean to suggest that other top Bush administration officials were playing politics with the nation's security before the 2004 presidential election."

Unfortunately, his claim that he was pressured to raise terror alerts to help Bush win re-election in 2004 could not be taken out of the book before publication on September 1…


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; hhs; memoir; tomridge
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To: Three if by government

McCain always goes out of his way to be polite to democrats. You think he’d have learned his lesson after what they did to him in the election.


21 posted on 09/01/2009 4:15:28 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: angkor

Ridge just wants to be ‘friends’ with everyone, including specter.


22 posted on 09/01/2009 4:16:52 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: MestaMachine

(I also live in PA, but not near Phila)

“Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, will be speaking in Philadelphia this week on Thursday, September 3. The politician is currently promoting his new book “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...And How We Can Be Safe Again”— a memoir about his time spent as Secretary of Homeland Security for the Bush Administration.”

http://www.phillyburbs.com/opinions/blogs/burbsblogs/news_politics_blog/news_politics_blog_details/article/420/2009/august/31/tom-ridge-at-free-library-on-september-3.html


23 posted on 09/01/2009 4:20:28 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Dr. Scarpetta
tom is branded a liar for the rest of History... if he lies... he steals... if he steals... he cheats... therefore he is a liar... cheater and thief... and an uber LIBERAL!

LLS

24 posted on 09/01/2009 4:33:38 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (hussama will never be my president... NEVER!)
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

Not only him. They are trotting out Dole too. Sahrah busts open the Crat offensive and here come the RINOS trying to drop the ball...Pathetic.


25 posted on 09/01/2009 4:46:42 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

Making the tour on Fox...on now with the Friends.


26 posted on 09/01/2009 4:48:40 AM PDT by Miss Didi ( "After all...tomorrow is another day." Scarlett O'Hara, Gone with the Wind)
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

I never ever trusted that slimy weasel Ridge.


27 posted on 09/01/2009 5:07:45 AM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
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To: LibLieSlayer

I know...


28 posted on 09/01/2009 5:26:35 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: screaminsunshine

It is pathetic...


29 posted on 09/01/2009 5:27:10 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Travis McGee

You were wise...


30 posted on 09/01/2009 5:27:43 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

I know that you do but I just had to say it.

LLS


31 posted on 09/01/2009 6:58:02 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (hussama will never be my president... NEVER!)
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

Glad to meet a fellow PA Conservative. I hope there are a lot more of us after the bama horror show.
I don’t live near Philly either, thank GOD. I am as far over in the southwestern corner as I could get without tripping over either the WVA or Maryland border and as far back in the woods as I could get without running face first into a mountainside.
Heaven.
I can go up to the strip mines and shoot all day long and no one says squat.
But enough about me.
I saw Ridge on FandF this morning and could not believe what an ugly critter he turned into. (Not that he was ever that pretty anyway.) He looked like a fat old pug. Bob Dole was on and HE looked better than Ridge.
Ridge was shifty. he never looked anyone in the eye. Never looked at the camera. Kept looking at some invisible thing somewhere because he was SOOOO busted.
Now if we can get Spectre out and Toomey in, lose Fast Eddie and work on losing Casey, we’ll be good. I would add that if NJ would annex Philadelphia, we would be even better. NJ is more Philly’s style anyway.


32 posted on 09/01/2009 9:58:16 AM PDT by MestaMachine (One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1.)
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To: LibLieSlayer

:)


33 posted on 09/01/2009 12:08:16 PM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: MestaMachine

I’m about 25 miles from NJ, but 60 miles north of Phila.

I’m sorry to say that I know people who voted for rendell.


34 posted on 09/01/2009 12:10:37 PM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

Yeah. He won, didn’t he. Bah...
I worked for Lynn Swann. Never got the state republican backing he should have gotten. The PA Republican Party is RINO driven. They get on my last nerve.


35 posted on 09/01/2009 12:20:32 PM PDT by MestaMachine (One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1.)
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To: TMA62
Ridge, former Democrat governor of Pennsylvania...

Ridge was a Republican governor... and congressman too. Also a Vietnam combat vet -- an enlisted man.

He is not quite Conservative enough for me for national office, but as governor, he did a half decent job --- far better than the Philadelphia hustler, Fast Eddie Rendell, who replaced him and has done nothing but raise taxes and break the budget.

I see this as a typical publishers hype to sell books. Look at the quote carfully. He never says it was political pressure. He says he wondered if it could be.

That crap is in there just to get attention to boost sales.

36 posted on 09/01/2009 12:23:49 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: Ditto

Then I think I am confusing him with Caine(?) Was he a Dem Senator from Pa who was not allowed to speak at the ‘92 DNC convention because of his pro-life views?


37 posted on 09/01/2009 12:35:33 PM PDT by TMA62 (TMA62)
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To: TMA62

The elder Casey (D) was not allowed to speak because he was pro-life.


38 posted on 09/01/2009 12:54:43 PM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: TMA62
That was Democrat Gov. Bob Casey Sr. His son, Bob Casey Jr. is now the Rat senator for PA. He claims to be pro-life as well, but I doubt that if push came to shove, he would vote that way. His dad was a fiscal liberal, but socially conservative (i.e. pro-life). Ridge was just the opposite ... fiscal conservative but socially liberal (i.e. pro-abortion)
39 posted on 09/01/2009 12:59:41 PM PDT by Ditto
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