toledoblade.com --

WASHINGTON - Being secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is a "tough, tough, tough job," says Dan Prieto. "We have a robotics lab at Harvard. Maybe they could help."

As President Bush prepares to name a new head for the two-year-old department with the departure Feb. 1 of Tom Ridge, Mr. Prieto, a homeland security specialist, and other analysts said the department has serious challenges that have not yet been addressed to make the nation safer. The department is getting $28.5 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2005, a 6.6 percent increase, but there is universal agreement that it is not enough to protect the nation from an attack.

Mr. Prieto, research director of the Homeland Security Partnership Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, says he would like to see the new head of the department be a well-connected Washington insider.

Such a person, he said, would need to be a a quick study on technical issues and a strong, take-charge personality able to win turf wars and prevail in bureaucratic battles. Mr. Ridge often failed to do that, he said.

Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor in charge of the university's Center for Health and Homeland Security, said the department's major shortcoming has been failing to coordinate intelligence.

Mr. Prieto agreed, saying the department "was supposed to act as honest broker and coordinate intelligence and solve that problem" of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. "They have fallen short on that."

James Carafano, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has done a study of the weaknesses of the current department and said Mr. Ridge's successor must be a strong manager adept at moving resources and spending money more efficiently.

Del Davis, a friend and admirer of Mr. Ridge and former director of security for Universal Security in Pittsburgh, said he is convinced the only successor he and many in the security field would be comfortable with is someone in law enforcement.

He suggested someone such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, or someone well versed in the intricacies of the CIA and the FBI. Mr. Greenberger also suggested Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. Prieto said the right successor should be someone who already has had an extensive career "who can take risks and say, 'If I don't win and they throw me out on my ear, I don't care. I'm going to do what's right.' It has to be somebody who has run a business or a significant organization who knows how to make the cogs and the different parts of the machine work."

The White House says Mr. Bush has not yet decided on a replacement for Mr. Ridge.

There is a long list of possible candidates, including Fran Townsend, who succeeded Mr. Ridge as the White House homeland security adviser; former Arkansas Rep. Asa Hutchinson, now responsible for border and transportation security under Mr. Ridge; former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, who chaired an independent commission on intelligence; Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; Bernard Kerik, former New York City police commissioner; Joe Albaugh, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt.

"Or maybe," said a White House aide, "we'll surprise you. We've done it before."

Contact Ann McFeatters at:
amcfeatters@nationalpress.com
or 202-662-7071.

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