Free Republic

Ridge Changes Tune On Terror Alert LevelsPITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 Tom Ridge (File) Alex Wong/Getty Images Close numSlides of totalImages Former Pennsylvania Governor and Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge is calling out former colleagues in the Bush Administration, suggesting they tried to play politics with the terror alert level. The charge comes in a book due out next month. Ridge claims other members of the Cabinet pressured him to raise the terror alert level shortly before the 2004 Presidential election. He says Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pressed him to support increasing...

Bush vets dismiss Ridge claims By: Andy Barr August 20, 2009 06:53 PM EST Top officials from the George W. Bush White House are disputing claims in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s coming book that they pressured him to adjust the terror threat level for political gain. “We went over backwards repeatedly and with great discipline to make sure politics did not influence any national security and homeland security decisions,” former White House chief of staff Andy Card told POLITICO. “The clear instructions were to make sure politics never influenced anything.” “I’m a little mystified,” former homeland security adviser...

Tom Ridge confirms a long-held suspicion among Bush critics, writing in his new autobiography that he "was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over."...

Ridge: I was urged to raise terror level for re-election @ 11:32 am by Eric Zimmermann Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was pressured to raise the terror threat level in the run-up to President Bush's re-election, the former cabinet secretary will claim in a new tell-all book. Titled "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again," the memoir is intended to rouse Americans from their complacency about security issues, Ridge says. To accomplish that goal, Ridge has included some stunning allegations about his time in the Bush administration. He almost considered resigning after being...

Washington—Having had enough of Limbaugh’s criticism of Colin Powell, Tom Ridge laid down the gauntlet on Rush Limbaugh, and evicting him from the Republican Party. The event took place after the interview on CSPAN’s Washington Journal where Ridge took a strong stance, supporting Colin Powell and blaming Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for having “a mindset,” that doesn’t foster unity.

RUSH: Now, I've checked my e-mail at home since the Sunday shows. They had General Powell on Face the Nation Sunday. Tom Ridge was on CNN on Sunday morning. Tom Ridge, just for your information, Tom Ridge called this program in 2003 to detail for... I mean, he wanted to be on this program in 2003, Tom Ridge out there saying I'm too shrill and I need to dial it back and all these other things. But I need to ask the question: Who's really changed? I've been who I am for 20 years. When it comes to the core...

WASHINGTON It was already known that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge has ruled out running against former Republican-turned Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter next year. But would Ridge consider making a White House bid in 2012? Ridge, a moderate Republican who was the nation's first homeland security chief, says he plans to work within the party so the GOP wins the presidency in 2012. "And we'll just leave it at that," he says. Ridge believes Republicans need to make some changes in their approach to be more successful. Asked in a broadcast interview whether he might want to accomplish those changes...

I didn't realize how much I don't like Tom Ridge until the last few interviews, he goes after Rush Limbaugh, then he's telling us what the Republican Party needs, but when asked if he'll support the GOP candidate, he can't commit to that yet...Invasion of the RINOs..

WASHINGTON (May 24) -- The conservative vs. moderate split threatening to rupture the Republican Party played out across the airwaves Sunday, with Colin Powell and Tom Ridge denouncing shrill and judgmental voices they say are steering the GOP too far right. Karl Rove challenged Powell to lay out his vision and "back it up" by helping elect Republicans. At stake is the GOP's status as a major party, Powell and Ridge suggested "I believe we should build on the base because the nation needs two parties, two parties debating each other. But what we have to do is debate and...

n his audacious attack on a sitting president last week, Mr Cheney declared that America was less safe from terrorism after Mr Obama's decision to abandon violent interrogation methods and close Guantanamo. But once the cheering had died down on talk radio and cable television, discordant voices emerged from the Right to challenge Mr Cheney's defence of the Bush-era legacy. "Yeah, I disagree with Dick Cheney," said Tom Ridge, who was appointed by the Bush-Cheney administration to set up and run the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on America. Mr Ridge spoke out...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two top Bush-era officials on Friday rejected ex-vice president Dick Cheney's scathing criticism of US President Barack Obama, saying the country's national security was not in jeopardy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in the same post under former president George W. Bush, and Tom Ridge, the former head of homeland security, both voiced disagreement with Cheney a day after he attacked Obama's performance as the new commander-in-chief.

Let's review the bidding. Tom Ridge will not run for Senator from Pennsylvania. He has decided to pass up the chance to trample an ultra-conservative Republican in the primary and sneak past a former-moderate-Republican in the general election for Senate in 2010. Tom Ridge would have been the Senator from Pennsylvania, but he is smart to want to be the Senator from Pennsylvania. Arlen Specter has a pain-in-the, er, tush for nearly 30 years. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980 - the same year as Ronald Reagan was elected President and Dan Quayle was elected Senator...

The Republican Party suffered a major blow on Thursday when Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and Secretary of Homeland Security, announced that he will not run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. “After careful consideration and many conversations with friends and family and the leadership of my party, I have decided not to seek the Republican nomination for Senate," said Ridge in a written statement. Ridge's decision not to run is a boon to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. The longtime moderate Republican senator switched parties on April 28 to avoid a tough GOP primary challenge from former Rep. Pat...

Tom Ridge: an Arlen Specter Republican? The former governor of Pennsylvania has refused to say that he’d vote for Republican Pat Toomey over Dem Arlen Specter should the two meet in the PA US Senate race. Ridge appeared on this afternoon’s Hardball. He began by announcing that he will not seek the GOP nomination for Senate. But at the end of the interview, when Chris Matthews asked about his preference between Toomey and Specter, Ridge played it coy. View video here.

Tom Ridge announced today that he will not seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in next year's primary.

Tom Ridge running for the U.S. Senate is the best case scenario for Pennsylvania Republicans. Consider the facts: the man has never lost an election in the Keystone State. He developed a record as a proven fiscal conservative as Governor, holding government spending to at or below the rate of inflation and cutting taxes by over $2 billion, while squirreling away boom-time revenues for a $1 billion rainy-day fund. A much decorated Vietnam veteran and local prosecutor, he’s strong on national security and law and order - a profile he only added to as the first Director of Homeland Security...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge is considering running for the Republican Senate nomination in his home state, according to a senior Republican aide with knowledge of the situation. National and Keystone State Republicans have been publicly and privately urging Ridge to consider a Senate bid since Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) announced earlier this week that he was switching parties and would run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010. Specter said he switched parties because he could not win a primary against conservative former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is popular with the party’s base but whom many national Republicans...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge is seriously considering a run for the Senate for the GOP nomination against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), according to Roll Call: Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge is considering running for the Republican Senate nomination in his home state, according to a senior Republican aide with knowledge of the situation. National and Keystone State Republicans have been publicly and privately urging Ridge to consider a Senate bid since Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) announced earlier this week that he was switching parties and would run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010. Specter said he switched parties...

The chattering in Harrisburg, Pa. and increasingly in Washington, D.C. is this: Pat Toomey will not be able to win the PA senate seat being held by Arlen Specter, now that the race will be held in a general election and not in the Pa. GOP primary. As such, the name of Pennsylvania's former governor Tom Ridge has popped to the surface as the one candidate that can beat Arlen Specter. Think again. Pat Toomey versus Arlen Specter would be the classic Conservative vs. Liberal type of campaign that the GOP, now in the minority, needs to take in order...

Tom Ridge called two predictions today. He said Steelers would win, and they are going to (they are up 17 in the 4 QTR) and Mac would win. If the Steelers game is any indication of tomorrow's election, I will say Ridge is right. Mac will be our next POTUS.