Thread: Homeland chief Chertoff has alienated a few Texans

July 26, 2008, 10:30PM
Homeland chief Chertoff has alienated a few Texans


By STEWART M. POWELL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

Chertoff shoulders far more assignments than merely immigration enforcement, heading a sprawling department that fused 22 agencies into a single $47 billion-a-year operation after the 9/11 attacks.
He bears ultimate responsibility for everything from the Secret Service to the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
WASHINGTON — When Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff swept into Houston recently to deliver a policy address at Rice University, he took a few minutes to catch up on old times with a college buddy, Rice President David Leebron.

The two Northeasterners bantered comfortably about the pecking order that dominated the ultracompetitive environment the two shared three decades earlier at Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Chertoff reminded Leebron that he graduated from the institutions a year ahead of the Rice leader and led the Harvard Law Review before relinquishing the helm to Leebron.

Brash and brainy, Chertoff reached legendary status at Harvard after conducting a spontaneous, two-day colloquy with a law professor in one class. His performance made him a model for the sure-footed, lightning-smart character in classmate Scott Turow's One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School.


No compromising
Thirty years later, Chertoff remains professorial, intense and highly competitive. He never forgets a detail. And he's not afraid to showcase his smarts.

These qualities have helped him navigate the labyrinthine federal bureaucracy in his demanding $191,300-a-year job as the top federal official responsible for bolstering airline, border, port and rail security against a second catastrophic terrorist attack.

But those same personal qualities also explain why the 55-year-old Cabinet officer has alienated so many Texans along the U.S.-Mexico border with his relentless implementation of the Bush administration's hard-nosed approach to immigration enforcement — led by his unyielding push to construct 670 miles of border fencing by the end of the year.

Some Texas officials are so exasperated that they say they'll just await the arrival of the next president before revisiting border enforcement with the federal government.

"Consultation with Chertoff has always been one-sided — there's never give and take," said Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, leader of an effort by the Texas Border Coalition of communities to halt construction with a federal lawsuit.

"Either one of the two presidential candidates would be more accessible to us than Chertoff or the Bush administration," he said.

Donald Reay, the executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, calls Chertoff's approach high-handed and aloof.

"His way of doing business hasn't been worth a diddly darn," Reay said.

It's a case of culture clash between the brash New Yorker and proud, outspoken Texans. Even Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, who voices respect for Chertoff after working with him during her tenure on the House Homeland Security Committee, says his style leaves some Texans cold.

"He's a non-Texan, obviously, and he's pretty, if you will, straightforward," she said. "Maybe there's not as much humor as we in Texas enjoy. You know sometimes that can be difficult."


Legal mandate
Chertoff, a gaunt and lanky jogger exuding coiled energy, calmly brushes aside the criticisms as he presses ahead to finish sections of the border fence and conduct raids for undocumented workers.

"I've got a legal mandate to get this work done before the end of this year," Chertoff said. "I strongly suspect that whoever the next president is going to be, they're not going to walk away from border security. Those who believe that this (issue) is going to evaporate and we're going to go back to an open border situation are going to find themselves disappointed."

The crackdown, Chertoff says, is the only way to regain public confidence in enforcement necessary to win popular support for an overhaul of immigration law next year.

"We're going to enforce the law the way it is," Chertoff said. "And I hope in that circumstance the public will be willing to consider opening a legal channel that will drive employers to use a legal way to hire workers as opposed to hiring illegal workers."

Department officials, Chertoff says, have consulted on at least 600 occasions in Texas with local leaders or landowners to try to arrange for surveys for fence construction.


Early training
Chertoff was born in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1953, the son of a conservative rabbi and a former El Al flight attendant. He graduated from the nearby Pingry School, founded in 1861 to "educate the sons of local residents, instill in them moral values and to prepare them for higher education."

The early training readied Chertoff to triumph at some of the nation's most demanding institutions.

He left Harvard in 1978 to clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. He prosecuted mobsters for Rudolph Giuliani in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the 1980s. He served as a U.S. attorney himself and peppered witnesses for the Senate Whitewater Committee in the mid-1990s. And he led the Justice Department's response to 9/11, helping to mastermind the controversial Patriot Act.

That was all before accepting a lifetime appointment from President Bush in 2003 to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia — a post he abruptly left in 2005 to lead the Homeland Security Department.

"How could I say no?" Chertoff recalled while en route to Houston to deliver the policy address at Rice.

The 9/11 attacks, he added, were "transforming."

"For my generation," he said, "this is the real test of our ability to rise to the occasion."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 09388.html

"Either one of the two presidential candidates would be more accessible to us than Chertoff or the Bush administration," he said.

They are more candidates than just the Status Quo .

And he led the Justice Department's response to 9/11, helping to mastermind the controversial Patriot Act.

All the praise and credentials listed for this man . Very smart indeed . The writer never tells of his "Dual-Citizenship" to Israel . I've always feld like Chertoff was a WatchDog for the pentagons Zionists . I can bank on one thing in my logic . Chertoff is so much smarter than Bush or Cheney that he was hand picked by the Elites for a purpose . Make sure the money keeps flowing to them . Katrina anyone ? port security ? how bout Mexican trucks roaming our hwy's ? And the Fence , where is it. Millions wasted on the high-tech camera fence (his friends ? maybe).
Illegals pouring in . This Creep hasn't been Fired ? WHY ? He's protected by, Israel thats why .

KEEP DOING THE ICE PROGRAMS

my guess is this writer likes seeing the illegals shoot cops and innocent civilians on highways.

nuff said.