Naked Manipulation

Courtesy of Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO's The Corner, we have this story from the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security, asserts in a new book that he was pressured by top advisers to President George W. Bush to raise the national threat level just before the 2004 election in what he suspected was an effort to influence the vote.

After Osama bin Laden released a threatening videotape four days before the election, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pushed Mr. Ridge to elevate the public threat posture but he refused, according to the book. Mr. Ridge calls it a “dramatic and inconceivable” event that “proved most troublesome” and reinforced his decision to resign.

Let's see. Mr. Ridge resigned in December of 2004, with not a hint that the White House had attempted a naked manipulation of critical Homeland Security operations for purely political reasons.

It is now 2009. As Ms. Lopez asks, why did it take the Secretary of Homeland Security so long to inform us about such a serious threat to the nation's security?

The only answer I can come up with is Mr. Ridge is attempting a naked manipulation of Homeland Security to sell his book.

I am truly tired of the coarseness of our political class.