America At War:
Homeland Security
With Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001; Noon EST

A lot has changed in the United States since Sept. 11. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Americans came face to face with the unthinkable -- attacks on our own soil. The Bush administration and authorities nationwide have scrambled to step up security in airports, public buildings and high profile landmarks.

The biggest change is President Bush's creation of the Office of Homeland Security -- a cabinet level post he's entrusted to former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. The Post's Ann Gerhart profiled Ridge in Monday's paper.

Gerhart was online Tuesday, Nov. 13 at Noon EST, to talk about Ridge and his new role in the administration.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Rockville, Md.: I liked your article. Is it appropriate to feel a little sorry for Ridge? He seems to be out there all alone, even though his office is right next door to the president. Did you get any indication about how much interference he is encountering from the Rove/Hughes bunch who seem to be more interested in Bush's image than the real threat? For example, in Fleisher's news conference yesterday, where he talked about the plane crash, he started his statement with something like, "While receiving a National Security Briefing..." Is it that important for me to know that Bush was being briefed? It all seems to be a matter of image.

Ann Gerhart: Appopriate to feel sorry for him? Well, it's a tough job with some serious built-in problems, it seems to me. There are more than 40 agencies and offices under several departments--my favorite is Vulnerability Assessment--all gathering info and offering protections, all feeding toward the Office of Homeland Security. Additionally, Ridge must calibrate his image always in deference to the president, and be mindful he is not stepping onto the toes of cabinet secretaries. That's a difficult adjustment to make when you're used to being one among one--chief executive for one the nation's most populated states. He and his staff, dutifully and appropriately, take pains to foster an image of being happy to fit in, and happy to serve. Nevertheless, Ridge didn't get as far as he did by failing to tend his own image a little, and I don't think he will sacrifice that image needlessly just to serve Rove/Hughes et al.

Carlisle, Pa.: Your article mentions that Gov. Ridge has received thousands of resumes. I have not been able to find an address to send a resume. What types of jobs are open and where should an interested applicant send a resume?

Ann Gerhart: Here's what to do: Call the White House at 202-456-1414 and ask for the Office of Homeland Security. There's a recorded message that offers instructions on available jobs. You might be able to poke around on the 'net now and find a website; last time I checked, a week or so ago, that page didn't seem to be up yet.

Baltimore, Md.: How will the new Office of Homeland Security be staffed? Where will it be located?

Ann Gerhart: The office of homeland security itself is in the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, although Ridge's office is in the West Wing. When at full staffing, the office will have about 100 workers. Hiring is a complicated process, of course, with the usual background checks for any White House hire a bit stiffer in this area.

Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Does Tom Ridge's new role have anything to do with badly-maintained airplanes falling out of the sky like the autumn leaves or is that someone else's woefully-neglected job? If it does fall under Ridge's "mandate" he's starting out two squares behind square one. Thanks much.

Ann Gerhart: That would seem to be the responsbility of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. My understanding is that Ridge gets briefed daily on these matters; while the federal government is bending over backwards to say there is no indication that the jet tragedy is anything but an accident, I am bearing in mind the words of the famous columnist Jimmy Breslin, who told my colleague Michael Powell yesterday: "Never believe a [bleeping] word you hear for the first 24 hours."

Virginia: What exactly was his military background? Was he Army or Marine Corps?

Ann Gerhart: Tom Ridge was drafted into the Army after his first year of law school. He served as an enlisted man and was the sergeant of his unit.

Washington, D.C.: Dean Acheson, writing on coordinating economic warfare initiatives prior to WWII, wrote that "it was not enough to have the president recite the litany that in foreign policy he was Allah and (then the Secretary of State) was his prophet who would "coordinate" the faithful. The prophet also need a sword for the unbelievers." Is Tom Ridge going to have such a sword?

Ann Gerhart: Ah, you Post readers. So deeply well-read, and often a rebuke to us all. I will not stray in these dangerous times into any metaphorical references to Allah, OK? However, I will note this: In his visits with congressional leaders immediately after taking on his new role, Tom Ridge assured them that he had all the resources he needed to do his job, and had the support and complete attention of the president. In the last week, he has begun to hedge that, saying that after the first of the year, he'll have a better sense of what other resources--funding and authority--he might need. I think it will be interesting to watch how he handles the pleas from both governors and mayors to more funds to reimburse them for the staggering amounts spent on police overtime, hazmat crews, National Guard details, beefed-up security at nuclear facilities, etc, etc. Ridge boasts that he can exploit his understanding of all the levels of government to get this job done; we'll see if he can deliver anything back to those folks.

Washington, D.C.: That's interesting -- and reassuring -- that Ridge has Army service under his belt. Did he see combat?

Ann Gerhart: Yes, Tom Ridge saw combat. He spent seven months in Vietnam, patrolling with a group of South Vietnamese near the North Vietnamese border. They moved around the area by helicopter, looking for snipers, sometimes surprising the enemy. Once, he killed one of those he found. He described that to Philadephia Magazine this way: "We got off the helicopter, it was a hot LZ, we got them before they got us." He's always been characteristically modest about that. He was awarded the Bronze Star. Then, when he was headed to Australia for some R&R, his appendix burst, and he was shipped home after the surgery.

McConnellsburg, Pa.: Gov. Ridge claims to have brought Pennsylvania to the technical age. Yet the biggest growth industry in Pennsylvania during his administration was landfills. He had the state spend millions of dollars developing state Web sites that many still do not fully function today, but they all have Gov. Ridge's picture on them and will cost Pennsylvania taxpayers millions to remove. Gov. Rdige rode one of the nation's biggest economic expansions and yet left the state with regional unemployment exceeding 11 percent. How does he explain the state's current poor economic condition under his administration?

Ann Gerhart: I know the Ridge administration claims to have made the state technologically modern, but I don't have specific information on how functional its various websites are. And, while I am no IT professional, I wonder how it could cost millions merely to strip a photo of someone off a particular site page. (I did notice when I went to Harrisburg to interview the governor's wife and some of the governor's former staff that the signs at the borders already had been changed to Welcome to Pennsylvania, Goveror Mark Schweiker, which, as a former Pennsylvania complainer, I found impressive. ) As for the state's poor economic condition, the governor's critics have ridden him hard about that. It's an aging rusty state, which big steel deserted long long ago, still relying first on agriculture and secondly on tourism to drive the economic engines.

Bethesda, Md.: Also, why didn't they march Ridge out there yesterday to talk about the Queens airline crash instead of Ari Fleischer? They seem less than eager to make full use of Ridge as the calming voice of the administration.

Ann Gerhart: I wondered the same thing myself. Ridge's visibility seems to come and go. Sometimes, the White House sends reporters an email calling attention to a briefing he's conducting, sometimes not. At this moment, for instance, the news that officials fear a second Daschle-like anthrax letter moved through the system is coming from Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman. There seem to be moments of unity on the federal message, and then they break down.

Bethesda, Md.: Do you think Ridge has a realistic chance to succeed? And didn't his friend George Bush stick him with basically an impossible job?

Ann Gerhart: Yes, seems to me it's a basically impossible job. In the week after the announcement, the Pennsylvania press had some fun with the following scenario: Ridge carries on, gamely enough, replaces Cheney on the ticket for the next election, consolidates power and sails in the White House in 2009. You'd have to be nuts to take this job hoping that would happen! And, how would we measure success in this job? No more jetfueled missiles in buildings? No more anthrax? No more truck bombs? Ever ever? Success in this job is the absence of things, an invisibility. And that's harder to crow about, even if it works.

McLean, Va.: Ann,has there been any talk of a position in Ridge's office for "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani? He certainly has the crisis management experience and seems better than most at calming fears and getting things done!

Also, how does the Ridge communications staff work -- through the White House press office or is it independent?

Ann Gerhart: Don't know if there's any talk of adding Rudy to the team, but it seems to me that he would have an harder time adjusting to the White House culture after being "one of one." I don't think Rudy has made much of a reputation for himself as a team player.

Jefferson City, Mo.: What is the point of having "Homeland Defense?" After all, don't we already have a Defense Department that's supposed to defend us? If the Defense Department is not defending us, what the hell are they "defending?" Somebody ought to put Bush, Rumsfeld and Ridge into a room with a chart of the U.S. Executive Branch until they can figure out who is supposed to do what.

Ann Gerhart: I will defer to all those who know much more about the defense department than I do, but the colossal organization that is headquartered at the Pentagon has always looked offshore to do its work, has it not? We were caught off guard in these attacks, and few military strategists spent their time thinking about defending America within her borders.

College Park, Md.: The Bush administration seems to see the National Security advisor job as one of advising and coordinating foreign policy, not one of running the show, as Dr. Kissenger did when he was in the NSC head job.

How do you see Ridge's role as Homeland Security Advisor developing -- as one of coordinating and advising, or as the guy that is going to run the show.

Ann Gerhart: So far, he is coordinating and advising. While he did serve for a few years as an assistant district attorney, Ridge doesn't have a great deal of law enforcement experience, so it would be hard for him, to use one example, to start running the show on investigations and intelligence. That is not the intent of the executive order establishing the Office, although some in Congress--Joe Lieberman, John McCain---have argued they want him to have more power.

Virginia: A former enlisted man telling high-ranking military officers what to do. Makes for an interesting story. Will his job be more domestic and local/state focus?

Ann Gerhart: Ridge's job is to anticipate and prevent terrorist actions, and failing that, to have a coordinated and strengthened response. He will work closely with local and state law enforcement, as well as with private sector organizations--the Olympic organizers, the heads of security for the NFL and Major League Baseball (and most of the guys are former high-level FBI types). He won't be giving orders to Donald Rumsfeld.

Philadelphia, Pa.: With the Republicans crying about expanding the number of Federal employees for airline security, recent reports of Gov. Ridge increasing his personal staff to the hundreds hasn't raised a peep. Why?

Ann Gerhart: The staffing for Ridge's Office of Homeland Security was set at about 100 from the beginning. That's about how many National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice has working for her; the White House has been careful to put the two agencies on a par with one another. That seems like a reasonable number for me. They aren't personal staffers, to fetch his laundry and what not; they're charged with carrying out the mandates Ridge has, and there are at least four: public communicator, security consultant, day-to-day crisis management, and red-tape cutter. That's a lot of jobs.

Ann Gerhart: Thanks for reading with curiousity and thoughtfulness, as always, online friends.

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