Thanks A Lot, Tom Ridge

Tell me something I don't know.

Tom Ridge, head of Homeland Security under GWB, says he suspected - at the time Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were playing political games with the terror alerts. It's not something he's spent years wrestling with in his mind. No. In his book he says - at the time he suspected the color alert threat levels were being manipulated for Bush's political gain. He says that his office of Homeland Security had no reason to feel that the colors needed changing. Apparently, his hands were tied. And everyone played along.

I'm pretty sure most people who were paying attention at the time were not shocked by Ridge's come to Jesus moment. All I'm left wondering is, why now? Oh yeah, there's no mystery. He's selling a book. So much for Mr. Integrity.

This angered me so much when I heard the news. Watching Chris Matthews on Hardball last night I was amazed - not at Ridge's confession but at Chris' amazement. Did someone as politically astute as the MSNBC Hardball host not have the same suspicions? Maybe he, like many a good American, was only trying to be patriotic, consciously or unconsciously suppressing such conspiratorial thoughts about the Bush administration.

A lot of good you do us now, Mr. Ridge. You could have been a stand up guy at the time and expressed your concerns openly and honestly with the American people. You could have resigned when it mattered.

Color me disgusted.

Also, color me "right all along".