RIDGE  (CONT)

Luntz's comments were "very reinforcing" that the way Ridge and his aides were communicating the department's message "was generally working, and to continue that," said Neely.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said any assertions that politics played a part in homeland security scheduling "are absolutely inaccurate and do not reflect reality."

Ridge also participated in a number of events last year with elected Democratic leaders.

"A vast majority" of the areas Ridge visited during his nearly two-year tenure were in urban centers and border or coastal states that tend to lean Democratic, Roehrkasse said.

When Ridge was running the department, he said the war on terrorism is "about as apolitical or bipartisan as you can get. There's no Republican or Democratic way to do it. We just have to do it right, regardless of our party affiliation."

At the time of Ridge's meetings with the pollsters, President Bush's re-election campaign was reeling from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the news media was speculating that Ridge might replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, or even Vice President Dick Cheney.

Neely said Ridge's future in government did not come up in the meeting with Luntz.

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