Typically nothing gets our head shaking first thing in the morning quite like the soft pitter-patter of the early broadcast news. So we were pleasantly surprised this morning when CNN rang in the new day by clanging one of its guests with some actual hard-hitting questions.
Around 8:30 or so, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge appeared on CNN’s American Morning to speak about yesterday’s decision, by a federal judge, ruling that the Bush administration’s wire tapping program was unconstitutional.
Perhaps Ridge showed up expecting the typical downy-soft morning treatment. If so, somebody forgot to tell CNN host Miles O’Brien.
“When this idea was being cooked up, I assume there was some discussion about going to Congress and getting them to change the law to make it possible to be more nimble in order to listen in on these phone calls,” asked O’Brien. “Why didn’t the Bush administration do that?”
In response, Ridge argued, in part, that this was a case of technology outpacing the law. “At the end of the day, think about the technology that we’re — that’s at play here,” said Ridge. “There’s a real practical reason I think that the courts will also — may actually look at to decide that not only is it legitimate to get this information without a warrant, but, you know, going to get a warrant when somebody in Pakistan or Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia is talking on a cell phone to somebody in the United States and throw the cell phone away like a disposable camera.”
At which point, O’Brien interjected: “No, no, no.”
For the duration of the interview, Ridge kept bobbing and weaving in his own defense, and O’Brien kept on the attack.
“While the urgencies of war are wonderful, why are we in this war after all?” O’Brien asked at one point. “We’re there to protect the rights that we hold so dear, right?”
“Well I think you’re on to something there,” said Ridge.
And later:
“But going back to when this program first began, if you or other people in the administration went to Congress and said, look, this is really important, this is a national security issue, we have a set of laws that were built and created with the rotary phone in mind and snail mail, and we’ve got to move quickly or truly lives will be lost,” said O’Brien. “You think Congress would have really rope-a-doped that one?”
“Well I don’t know if they rope-a-doped it,” said Ridge.
Finally, O’Brien went in for the big hit: “Looking back on it, do you think it was a mistake?”
“Well everybody has the — you know 20/20 hindsight is a perfect science,” said Ridge. “And I think if it could have — if we had of known it could have been done quickly, we could have expedited the process and …”
By the end, even Ridge seemed ready to genuflect to his host.
“I think at the end of the day,” said Ridge, “we’ve just had a very interesting and very animated discussion.”
We agree, thanks to CNN’s O’Brien.
Definitely, no wake and shake, here.
Felix Gillette writes about the media for The New York Observer.