Editorial: Watchdog gets sacked

Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004 | 9:04 a.m.

Earlier this month the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, lost his job. The White House won't say why President Bush didn't renominate Ervin, the Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog, whom Bush initially appointed to the post in December 2003. (Because Ervin was appointed when Congress was in recess, his tenure only lasted until Congress' most recent session ended, which was Dec. 8.)

The White House may not be talking, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Ervin's days were numbered once he started issuing reports about the Homeland Security Department that detailed wasteful spending and bureaucratic bungling by the agency charged with preventing terrorist attacks. The Bush administration's warped view of loyalty -- that even valid, honest criticism equates betrayal -- certainly sealed Ervin's fate, especially given his blunt assessments that catalogued a sometimes poorly run bureaucracy.

We can't say that we're surprised Ervin wasn't asked to stay, but it doesn't make it any less disturbing that President Bush wouldn't keep someone who is trying to make the Homeland Security Department a better and more efficient anti-terrorist agency. And it's not as if Ervin reeks of doom and gloom. He acknowledged in a commentary he wrote for The New York Times this week that the Homeland Security Department can point to genuine achievements in border control and airport safety. But Ervin mentioned that even in an area where great strides have been made, such as airport security, a number of gaps still remain. Ervin notes that part of the problem is that the department simply won't acknowledge some of its deficiencies, such as inadequate screening at passenger and baggage checkpoints, and then quickly implement recommendations to fix them.

If ever there were a federal agency that needed an inspector general who won't flinch and provide the president -- and the public -- with an unvarnished assessment, it would be the Homeland Security Department. It's a shame that such a basic precept is lost on this White House.