August 5, 2004

Betrayal of trust
"The Bush administration's disgraceful history of lies and distortions explains why so many Americans are dismissing the latest terror alerts as a political stunt."

[T]he level of partisanship has increased because of the clumsy performance of Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security, who turned the alert announcement into a political rally.

"We must understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the president's leadership in the war against terror," he said on Aug. 1.

Several days later, Ridge held another news conference, at which he declared, "We do not do politics at the Department of Homeland Security."

With that the alert rose to the risible.
- Sidney Blumenthal, in Salon.


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