Ridge took on impossible job at a time nation needed him

Tom Ridge maintained his sanity during three years in a job that only a crazy man would want.
As the nation's chief of the Homeland Security Department, Ridge oversaw the most massive reorganization of government resources in history.
Ridge, a Harvard-educated lawyer and popular governor of Pennsylvania, could have chosen to remain that state's chief executive, and could have then left more than 20 years of public service to take a lucrative position in a top law firm. But he didn't.
He answered President Bush's call for someone to take on an almost impossible and largely thankless job. Indeed, the job turned out to be both impossible and thankless.
Ridge was charged with taking a collection of 22 disparate federal agencies with more than 180,000 employees and turning it into a cohesive unit. That he made any progress toward that end, given the sniping and political intrigue that he encountered in Washington, is a testament to his intelligence and his talent.
First responder
Ridge announced his resignation Tuesday from a job he assumed only weeks after suicide terrorists murdered 3,000 innocent people in New York, Washington and a field in Ridge's home state. Since then, there have been no successful attacks on American soil, but history tells us that terrorists are patient monsters who will take years planning their attacks.
For that reason, replacing Ridge with the right man or woman will be one of the most important decisions President Bush will have to make in rebuilding his Cabinet for is second term.
Washington insiders say the president is showing a tendency toward comfortable appointments to his second Cabinet. The president is not a man known to appreciate dissent. But Homeland Security demands someone with a strong vision of what has to be done, even if doing it is unpopular at the highest levels.
The department must walked a tightrope, protecting the American people from terror while preserving this as a free society. The new Homeland Security chief will need strength, wisdom and a fine sense of balance.
Ridge, who has walked the tightrope for three years, can now breath easier, begin scheduling more time for his wife and two teenage children. He's earned that much and more.