TOMRIDGE.CBS 08/03/04 8:04 AM-DLR   1:21
Are we going to debate EVERY terror alert?  This is Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.
I know there are two sides to every story - but the debates over the terror warnings are making me a little crazy.  First we get the terror alert, then we get the DOUBTS about the terror alert.  Sunday we went to code Orange, then today we get stories the alert is based on evidence that's three or four years old  - the implication being that it was all ginned up by the administration the moment John Kerry's poll numbers started climbing.
Appearing before employees at New York's CitiGroup, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge dismissed such allegations:
 "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."
He pointed out that yes, most of the information was developed years ago, but it HAD been updated, and if YOU knew what he knows, you'd raise the orange flag too:
 "This is the most significant detailed pieces of information we've come across in a long, long time - perhaps ever!"
So how can you argue with that?
And yet we do.  Nobody trusts anybody.  I mean right now, the National Weather Service is warning the East Coast about Hurricane Alex.  I guess the day is coming when Republicans will tell North Carolina to board up the windows, Democrats will say relax and go surfing.  
Or vice versa.
It's nuts.  It's bad enough al-Qaeda wants to disrupt the election process - without us helping them do it.  So from now on, when there's an orange alert, I think Bush AND Kerry should be up there, side by side, they should BOTH issue the alert, shake hands, hug, slap each other on the fanny, and then get back on their busses.
Now this.
~C:\works\files\TOMRIDGE.CBS