GovernmentExecutive.com

Less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, Tom Ridge parachuted into Washington at President Bush's request armed only with a new and amorphous mandate to protect the American public through something called the Office of Homeland Security.

The former Pennsylvania governor was suddenly immersed in a new and scary world of hijacked airplanes, anthrax-tainted letters, and potential attacks by terrorists unleashing nuclear weapons, "dirty" radioactive bombs, truck bombs, smallpox, cyber-sabotage, and brands of terrorism he hadn't yet imagined.

Ridge's primary mission was to untangle the morass of federal, state, and local agencies with overlapping domestic security responsibilities. But he wasn't really in charge of anything. Officially, his job was only to advise the president, but the public expectation was that he would be the country's Homeland Security Savior.

Ridge, 57, spent his first seven months grappling with the slippery levers of power - he had unfettered access to the president but zero authority to make anyone do anything. Congress clamored for a homeland security overhaul, and Bush finally responded with his proposal for a Department of Homeland Security. Six months later, it passed.

As the department's first secretary, Ridge has received a mission that is still broad: to prevent, protect against, and respond to terrorist threats. But now, as a department head, he faces even higher public expectations that he will shield the country from another September 11.

In Ridge's first 15 months as Homeland Security czar, his greatest strength has been his inside influence - he enjoys clear backing from Bush. He's earned respect on Capitol Hill and in the states. But the biggest area in which he's been lacking is "the vision thing."

Ridge is good at taking care of the details of his job and acting when people come to him with a problem. For example, when state and local officials asked what they should do with the disconnected threat information they were getting from Washington, Ridge handed them a color-coded national alert system. When a Homeland Security Department employee-to-be was worried about retirement benefits, Ridge had an aide call back with an answer the next day.

That's a good performance for a congressman or a governor - both positions featured on Ridge's resume - but it doesn't cut it for a national executive. He needs to give homeland security efforts a direction and force his department and the overall federal government toward that compass point.

Now Ridge must execute a huge 22-agency merger, which will give him 170,000 new employees. And these uprooted agencies will bring their problems, too: to name just a few, the management chaos of the new Transportation Security Administration, the ingrained culture of the 213-year-old Customs Service, and a political tug-of-war over immigration policy.

"He's got to keep his elbows sharp. If any Cabinet position calls for leadership, his does," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. "If we have another large attack on the homeland, our preparation is going to be tested, and if it doesn't measure up, he's a good candidate to take the fall."