Rudy for DHS?

Posted by Moonage on 01 Dec 2004 | Tagged as: People

Tom Ridge resigned as secretary of the Department for Homeland Security.  The pundits are already speculating about Rudy Giuliani taking the helm.  It’s a natural fit.  Rudy was the primary hero of 9/11.  He has vested his new career in homeland security and seems to be enjoying some success with that venture.  And, to top it off, he can pick and choose when he wants to be a media darling or not.

Now, if Rudy were to decide to pursue the Cabinet position for DHS, he’ll be crucified as much or moreso than Tom Ridge was.  This is a highly contentious position in a highly contentious time:

Loss of liberties is a threat equal to terrorism

I doubt you’ve heard what the judge said.

About the Patriot Act and the loss of civil liberties, I mean. As near as I can tell, federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima’s comments on Saturday to a conference at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles were reported only by The L.A. Times and The Associated Press.

I also doubt many of us would be all that concerned even if we had heard. The Land of the Free can be rather ambivalent about its freedoms. Or, perhaps more accurately, our attitude toward them is often at odds with our words.

Consider that 89 percent of us said the right to due process was either ”crucial” or ”very important” in a Gallup poll last year. Then consider the indignation that did not erupt over the detention of hundreds of Muslim men swept up after 9/11. They had no access to lawyers, no charges filed and no masses of Americans in an uproar about it.

So for me, Tashima’s concerns resonate. ”It’s happening all over again,” he said.

The ”it” in question is the World War II-era internment of American citizens, a subject with which Tashima is intimately familiar. A lifetime ago, the 70-year-old jurist was held at a camp near Parker, Ariz.

Rudy took very drastic steps to clean up New York, as a result he received a lot of flack.  Right when it appeared he was pretty much political toast, 9/11 gave him a second chance at respect and any political life at all.  By dancing on the outskirts of the political arena, he has maintained his hero status and gotten quite a bit of airtime.  No one has any reason at this time to trash Rudy, and he knows it.   If he were to even speculate taking the helm of DHS, I know, as he does, all of that garbage that dogged him as mayor will come flooding back with additional vitriol.

Although Bush would be wise to ask Rudy to be Secretary of the Department for Homeland Security.  I really think it would be wise for Rudy to graciously decline.

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