Border Agent Backdown.

It's always nice to see lame-duck Cabinet secretaries loosen up a little bit and start telling it like it is. Tom Ridge acknowledged in a USA Today interview Monday that while the intelligence overhaul bill President Bush signed late last year called for adding new Border Patrol agents at the rate of 2,000 a year for five years, the administration isn't going to designate enough funds in its budget to reach that goal. Grand plans like dramatically beefing up the border presence make for great soundbites, but in reality they require tradeoffs that people usually aren't willing to make--and sometimes with good reason. "It's nice to say you're going to have 10,000 more Border Patrol agents in five years," Ridge told USA Today. "But what other part of Homeland Security do you want to take the money from?"