Thanks to some on-the-ball reporting by USA Today’s Mimi Hall, we now know for sure what many of us suspected back in 2003 and 2004 — that pressure from the White House had more to do with raising the terror threat level than, well, actual threats.

Yesterday, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge popped out from the duct-tape aisle at Home Depot long enough to blurt out the truth to a gathering in Washington:

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or “high” risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation’s homeland security apparatus.

Ridge said he wanted to “debunk the myth” that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.

“More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it,” Ridge told reporters. “Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country on (alert). … There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, ‘For that?’ “

Look, we want the government on the lookout for bad guys as much as anybody does. But Ridge’s comments sure seem to confirm our belief that the biggest “threat” worrying the White House was that John Kerry would be elected on Nov. 2, 2004.

Another reason that leadership on terrorism may not be propping up Bush’s sagging numbers is that the fear of a terrorist attack on the United States has receded into the background, but has not disappeared, after being the predominant issue following the 9.11 terrorist attacks. Only about one-in-five registered voters (17%) are “very worried” about a terrorist attack on the United States in the next few months, but 48% are “somewhat worried.”