Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: UAE purchase of ports latest Bush woe
By Dave Ring
Daily Toreador (Texas Tech)
02/24/2006

(U-WIRE) LUBBOCK, Texas — Now I'm not one to kick a man when he's down, but I'd also be lying if I said I didn't find it a little amusing. Here is this president, besieged already with his failing health care policies, his fledgling Social Security privatization or his inability to justify his domestic surveillance program, and now he's having a row with congress over the purchase of shipping operations by a United Arab Emirates company, Dubai Ports.

Not only has it come to light that the transaction was not given the standard 45-day review period, but President Bush was not even informed of the deal because, according to White House press corps punching bag Scott McClellan, "the matter did not rise to the presidential level".

But while I personally find the whole situation somewhat satisfying, I must say that once again, the administration has a point.

OK, I feel like I need to take a shower after saying that.

Anyway, the fears expressed by members of congress and the media are that port security will be compromised if given over to a state-run company, especially since said state had direct ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Could you imagine if an Iraqi owned-company was about to take over roughly 22 percent of the nation's ports? And Iraq didn't even have anything to do with 9-11.

But there is a point that many people are ignoring. The majority of the dissention is pure political opportunism, by the Democrats and Republicans.

Right now is a good time to not be buddy-buddy with the administration. The rational wing of the Republican party is slowly distancing itself from the Faustian principles of the neo-cons from the Project for a New American Century. Iraq is falling into civil war, the truth about the administration's failure during Katrina is coming out, more people are living in poverty and uninsured than in decades and the conclusion of the CIA leak investigation and Bush's ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff are chasing away the White House's friends like the stinky kid who always smelled like piss.

For the Democrats, their hopes are that this will be one more bullet in their arsenal come November. The left has struggled ever since its defeat in 2000 to find a singular voice to counter the Republican machine. They have been handed opportunity after opportunity to step up and stop playing passive voice politics, but have failed to do so with any great effect.

Sadly, framing the administration as soft on national security through the lenses of this port purchase is not going to work. If the Democrats want to point out the White House's shortcomings on this matter, they need to bring up serious topics like the continual lack of body/vehicle armor in Iraq, the cutting of non-retired military personnel benefits and the lowering of acceptance standards by our armed forces in order to stem the hemorrhaging recruitment levels.

But, just like the Dick Cheney shooting, this is less about the substance of the issue, and more about the context within which it fits. The administration has chronically manipulated the information it gives to the American people. I don't care that the Vice President shot a dude in the face. I do care that it took him 14 hours to call the cops, and he got away with it. I also care that it took the White House so long to own up to the facts. Many have poked fun at the possibility of Cheney being drunk when the shooting occurred and the rationale that they knew the cost in PR that he would face by delaying the story was less than the full facts coming to light.

Now, with the approval of this port transaction, it isn't so much the act itself, but more in the way the administration failed to see such a negative backlash. Rove has made it clear that if GOP legislators want White House support in November, they better toe the line. But now he is facing a unified opposition against his boss.

It is the same businessman arrogance that got this CEO administration in such a storm in the first place. These men think they can keep secrets and coerce people into doing their bidding, and have been successful up until now.

So I say let Dubai make some cash off our consumerism. It isn't like our ports are secure anyway. There isn't really much we can do to actively prevent an attack. But what the administration needs to learn is the scope of its power. While Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove all have been itching to push the limits of executive power, the encouraging thing is now we actually are seeing those limits push back.

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