Tom Ridge's Bureaucratic Battlefield

Tom Ridge's Bureaucratic Battlefield coach outlet stores By Richard S. Dunham For four months, Tom Ridge has had the toughest job in the nation's capital, except perhaps that of President or coach of the Washington Redskins: protecting the U.S. from future terrorist attacks. Considering the scope of the challenge, the former Pennsylvania governor might as well change his name to Jim Phelps, the guy who headed up the Mission: Impossible team on television. Ridge's mission is far more real than Mr. Phelps' adventures, but it is nearly as impossible. So how's the former Army staff sergeant doing in commanding home-front defense? Pretty well, if you judge by the budget numbers that came out the first week of February. Spending on homeland security would nearly double, from $19.5 billion this year to $37.7 billion in fiscal 2003, under President Bush's budget proposal, unveiled Feb. 4. Indeed, thanks to Ridge, many federal agencies would receive even more money for security purposes than they originally requested from the White House. Beyond the dollars and cents, it has been a mixed bag for the 56-year-old Ridge. He has won some turf battles, lost some internal wars, and learned some painful lessons -- particularly in connection with the Administration's stumbling, disjointed response to the October anthrax scare. But he has grown in the job, maintains the President's steadfast support, and still might be the next Vice-President of the United States, if Dick Cheney decides to retire in 2004 and George Bush wins re-election. PASSION FOR STASIS.   The bottom line: Ridge ultimately will be judged on the Administration's success in thwarting potential terrorist attacks. There is no margin of error. Even a single slip-up would likely be seen as a catastrophic failure. Unlike the war in Afghanistan, the war against terrorism at home is harder to quantify. "It may be harder to define final victory on the home front," Ridge admitted in a Feb. 7 speech at the National Press Club. "There will be no surrender ceremony or V.T. Day, victory over terrorism." Even with the proposed funding boom, the homeland-security director faces serious challenges combating a shadowy enemy living among us, as well as bureaucratic in-fighting at the White House. With a skeleton staff, he is responsible for coordinating more than 40 federal agencies and funds dispersed across about 2,000 government accounts. As Ridge has learned painfully, it's not always possible to rein in feuding fiefdoms. "The passion with which people defend the status quo is stronger when the issue is turf than when it is dollars," says Bush budget director Mitch Daniels, a key Ridge ally. The result has been some internal setbacks for Ridge. A big one: coach outlet sale His goal of combining border-protection services into one agency was thwarted by turf-conscious administrators. Despite the short-term defeat, Ridge says he'll keep on fighting for something he thinks would improve public safety and management efficiency. "We've got everybody talking about it," he says. While he hasn't won every internal battle, Ridge boasts that "folks know that I'm around." 2008 CONTENDER?   That may be true coach purses outlet inside the Beltway, but it's not yet the case in Kalamazoo. A Jan. 30-31 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll found that 43% of Americans don't know enough coach factory outlet online about Ridge to evaluate his performance. Still, of those familiar with his work, 82% approve of the job he is doing. Those numbers are being carefully monitored by the Pundit Elite, which is watching Ridge's every step to see if he has the right stuff for the No. 2 job on the GOP ticket in 2004 -- or even possibly the top spot in 2008. There's a reason Ridge has taken a low profile in recent months. In his early days on the job, he was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight when anthrax was sent through the mail to a handful of leading political figures and journalists. Ridge's responses to press inquiries were incomplete and occasionally incorrect. He now acknowledges he made "some decisions predicated on limited information." He's prepared to respond more effectively the next time around -- although he hopes there never is another next time. PEACEMAKER NEEDED.   coach outlet sale You can expect Ridge to be more visible in coming months. On Feb. 5, he and the President flew to Pittsburgh to stress the importance of preparing for a bioterrorist attack. Among Ridge's other top priorities: cybersecurity, border security, coach purses outlet and grants to states and localities to help them prepare to respond to any terrorist attack. That's a start. But for the rest of Ridge's first year to be successful, he'll have to do better at ending the turf wars between federal agencies involved in homeland-security issues. It's what Ridge calls "tearing down the stovepipes." The home-front commander sees the President's budget as "a good start" in protecting Americans from terrorists, foreign and domestic. That's true. But, as Ridge is quick to admit, it's only a start. Dunham is a White House correspondent for BusinessWeek's Washington bureau. Follow his views every Monday in Washington Watch, only on BusinessWeek Online Edited by Beth Belton Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE