Farewell from the Ridge

It's so hard to say goodbye:

Ridge is the first secretary of the department, which was created in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It folded 22 agencies with 180,000 employees into one organization, charged with developing and coordinating a national strategy to protect against terrorist threats or attacks in the United States.

Perhaps his highest-profile move was to oversee the creation of the color-coded threat-warning system. During his time as adviser and secretary, the national threat level was raised from yellow (elevated) to orange (high) and back six times. It is currently at yellow.

Ridge has won praise for tackling what was widely regarded as an exceedingly difficult job. But many outside observers say the department is falling short of delivering what it should and could.

Some outside analysts also felt that Ridge lost a number of important battles and said they were hoping his replacement would be able to get more money and therefore more clout for the department.

He won praise for taking on a tough job, and little else. Shouldn't be too hard for his replacement to meet such a high bar.