First, pundits speculated about why Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff gave up a lifetime appointment as a federal judge to take what is arguably the most agita-creating job in Washington. More recently, they wondered about the possible national security significance of the disappearance of his mustache.
At a breakfast with reporters yesterday, Chertoff tried to set the record straight on both scores.
First, he said he sleeps well at night despite the pressures of his job.
“I’m well aware of the fact that I can’t guarantee that there won’t be an attack,” he said. “I’m well aware of the fact that if, despite my best efforts, there is an attack, I am very likely to be harshly criticized. . .What’s important to me is I have to live with myself. And I have to ask myself, ‘have I exerted myself and done everything I can reasonably — not excessively, but reasonably — to protect this country?’”
Asked to list his biggest concerns, Chertoff mentioned the fortitude of the American public almost in the same breath as a lethal attack.
Carol Eisenberg
“In the long run, I worry of course about a weapon of mass destruction,” he said. “But I would say in the short run, I worry about a developing complacency and cynicism about the threat we are facing. . . . I don’t think anybody has accused me of being hysterical or amping up the threat and trying to make people paranoid about it. [But] I do worry that we are beginning to swing in the other direction with people starting to be unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices in order to make sure that we can continue to disrupt and repel these kinds of attacks.”
And about that missing mustache? Did he shave it in the face of some new intelligence or anticipating appearing before television cameras?
“There is no great semiotic value to it,” he replied gamely. “I don’t have premonitions. . . It was just a decision [that it was] time for a change.”