The Republicans playing politics with Homeland Security? You don't say!

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met privately with Republican pollsters twice in a 10-day span last spring as he embarked on more than a dozen trips to presidential battleground states.

Ridge's get-togethers with Republican strategists Frank Luntz and Bill McInturff during a period the secretary was saying his agency was playing no role in Bush's re-election campaign were revealed in daily appointment calendars obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters during the election season.

His aides resisted releasing the calendars for over a year, finally providing them to the AP three days after Ridge left office this month.

Link.

This is just one more example of the politicization of the American government under the Bush administration. Clearly, they cared more about reelection than keeping the American people safe. However unsurprising this news is, it's nevertheless disappointing to see for a fact the degree of corruption in this administration.