The gadfly: former staffer becomes leading DHS critic.

AuthorMagnuson, Stew
PositionSECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Briefs - Clark Kent Ervin was inspector general of DHS - Brief article

Former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin has emerged in recent months as one of the department's leading critics, and one with some credibility.

He's a self-described fiscal conservative, who came from Texas after serving as then Gov. George W. Bush's assistant secretary of state and deputy attorney general.

Since the spring release of his book, "Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack," he has made the rounds on television talk shows, think tank panel discussions and book signings.

His main points of contention are that the department is both under-funded, and less than the sum of its parts.

"Today, the Department of Homeland Security remains essentially a collection of variously dysfunctional components held together tenuously by little more than a common name, logo and mission statement," he wrote in the book.

Ervin portrays himself as a crusader against fraud and waste, who had an adversarial relationship with former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge and the heads of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental...

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