WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tom Ridge's successor as chief of the Homeland Security Department will have to unify a sprawling bureaucracy, a deadly serious job where failure could put the United States at risk of another terror attack.
Ridge, who announced his resignation Tuesday, acknowledged the frustrations of working out the kinks in the broadest government reorganization in half a century, a job critics say remains largely incomplete. ``I like going to work every day,'' Ridge said, before adding, ``There are certain days I've enjoyed it even more.''
Ridge said he will remain in the job until Feb. 1, unless the Senate confirms his successor earlier. Among those cited as potential candidates are Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who helped rebuild Iraq's police force; former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt; and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend.
Others are also believed to be interested in the job, including Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security in the Homeland Security Department.
Critics said Ridge's legacy is mixed at Homeland Security, a collection of 22 disparate federal agencies with more than 180,000 employees. It includes Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Customs Service, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration, with a combined budget of $36 billion.
``He was dealt an impossible hand,'' said Richard Clarke, the former top counterterrorism adviser to President Bush who resigned last year. ``He was not allowed to make some of the key decisions about the beginning of the department. I think anyone would have failed under those circumstances.''
Although the Homeland Security Department originally was envisioned as a broker of intelligence after the 2001 terror attacks, the Bush administration opted to establish a new terrorist screening center and terrorist threat integration center, set up at the FBI and CIA respectively.
``Ridge is a personality. He engendered extreme loyalty in headquarters staff,'' said Dan Prieto, a research director at Harvard University and former Democratic staff member for the House Homeland Security Committee. ``Was he the right person to go out on a limb, knock heads and make sure the department achieved this goal? I would argue that he wasn't.''
Even loyalists to Ridge acknowledge the next secretary must work to unify the organization, which still uses hundreds of different computer networks for systems such as intelligence, accounting, procurement and hiring. Auditors have complained about the department's spending controls and the security of its own computer networks, and it can take months at Homeland Security to hire key employees for important positions.
``Tom Ridge is a decent man and a fine public servant but unfortunately was not given the leeway or resources to tighten up homeland security the way it should be done,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. ``We hope that whoever the administration chooses to succeed him will be given the tools needed to really do the job.''
Ridge will be remembered for his terror alerts and tutorials about how to prepare for possible attacks, including the controversial ``disaster kits'' that caused last year's run on duct tape and plastic sheeting. He said he was certain the country is safer today than before the suicide hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
``I am confident that the terrorists are aware that from the curb to the cockpit we've got additional security measures that didn't exist a couple years ago,'' Ridge told reporters Tuesday at the department's Washington campus, which he helped create.
Bush said Ridge's efforts resulted in ``safer skies, increased border and port security and enhanced measures to safeguard our critical infrastructure and the American public.''
Ridge sent his letter of resignation to Bush at midday Tuesday, after attending a morning White House threat briefing with CIA and FBI officials. The former Pennsylvania governor thanked Bush for giving him the opportunity to fight back against terrorists. He recalled that the passengers on Flight 93, who forced their hijacked plane down in a Pennsylvania field, had also fought back.
``There will always be more to do, but today, America is significantly stronger and safer than ever before,'' Ridge wrote Bush.
After Ridge sent the letter to Bush, he met with senior department leaders to tell them his plans.
Ridge is the seventh of Bush's 15-member Cabinet to announce they won't be part of the second term. More are expected, and administration officials said Treasury Secretary John Snow or Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appear to be next.
The turnover in the Bush Cabinet is typical of second-term presidencies. Presidents Clinton and Reagan had seven Cabinet seats change hands after they won new terms, President Nixon nine and Presidents Truman and Johnson four each.
Associated Press Writer Katherine Pfleger Shrader contributed to this report.
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