Tom Ridge does not get enough credit. Barely a year after the most deadly terrorist attack in American history, he became the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the second largest federal agency after the Pentagon. Congress initially refused to fund the new department, and analysts from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) claimed that it could take up to three years to get the Department of Homeland Security operational. Meanwhile, rational, well-informed people like Sen. Bob Graham (R-Fla.) were predicting a massive, imminent terrorist attack.

Matters transpired differently. It has been more than three years since Sept. 11, and there has been no comparable disaster. Of course, only giving credit to Ridge for this would be simplistic; I would argue that the active prosecution of the War on Terror by our armed forces and tighter international cooperation on terror-related issues are the chief causes of our recent good fortune. Still, the main task of the Department of Homeland Security is to prevent attacks against American citizens at home, and the record, under Ridge, has been nearly perfect. Additionally, unlike his counterpart at the Department of Justice, John Ashcroft, Ridge has had the political sense to avoid becoming a lightning rod for liberal attack. Indeed, politicians of both persuasions have praised Ridge for his unobtrusive work.

However, Ridge's congeniality has been only a qualified blessing, because taxpayer money has been wasted in grand fashion in an effort to please everyone. As part of funding the Department of Homeland Security, Congress served up its usual pound of pork; Colorado received more money per capita than New York. That's to be expected-if I may be forgiven for butchering the extended metaphor, pork is the lard that greases the wheels of government. And, to be fair, Ridge can't be blamed for these porcine proposals, but he can be held accountable for which troughs the money has been dumped into. In places that are true targets for terrorism, like Va. and Washington, D.C., Congress has allocated in ludicrous fashion. In Va., volunteer firefighters used $330,000 of Homeland Security funding to purchase a state-of-the-art firefighting boat, and in D.C., $300,000 was earmarked for a computerized towing system to combat, one supposes, those terrorists who aim to take down the "Great Satan" by double-parking.

Bernard Kerik has been appointed to fill Ridge's shoes. Kerik's qualifications are quite different from Ridge's-Kerik was a beat cop in New York City, a warden, the head of New York City's jails and the New York City Police Commissioner, while Ridge was an assistant district attorney. Ridge's greatest claim to fame is cutting taxes every year in office as governor of Pa.-Kerik's greatest claim to fame is cutting inmate-on-inmate violence in New York City jails by 90 percent. At heart, Ridge is a politician and Kerik is a police officer; notably, Kerik is the police officer whose relentless prosecution of petty crime in New York City has lowered the crime rate tremendously.

Indeed, praise has rung from red and blue alike for Bush's new nominee. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that Kerik "knows the great needs and challenges this country faces in homeland security," words similar to President Bush's endorsement of Kerik as someone who "knows something about security-he's lived security all his life." Despite the Dickensonian syntax of Bush's backing, the message is clear: Kerik is expected to break eggs and step on toes in a way that a cordial administrator like Ridge simply could not.

Doubts about Kerik's suitability for the job have, accordingly, come from defenders of civil liberties who fear that Kerik's background points to a tendency to ignore the finer points of law in favor of getting results. While these concerns are certainly grounded in reality (infamously, a group of homeless squatters in New York City was assaulted by police officers using tear gas), I must admit that the prospect of ACLU lawsuits does not bother me. The prospect of an incompetent response to a terrorist attack, however, does.

That is why I welcome and why I believe that all Americans should support Bernard Kerik's confirmation as Secretary. One of the biggest problems facing Homeland Security is the disconnection between federal intelligence-gathering agencies and local law enforcement-Kerik, as former Police Commissioner, knows the importance of communication between federal and local government. And, perhaps even more importantly, Kerik knows the cost of failure. As the New York City Police Commissioner, Kerik has had the place of honor at too many funerals.

Montana can be reached at

jmontana08@amherst.edu