http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/27/gop.tm/By KAREN TUMULTY
Monday, February 27, 2006; Posted: 11:43 a.m. EST (16:43 GMT)
The closest thing to a working political antenna at the White House these days may be the one on Dan Bartlett's car radio. Congressional anger over President George W. Bush's decision to allow a Dubai-owned company to operate terminals at major U.S. ports had been at a low boil for days before the White House got its first inkling of the furor: Bartlett, the presidential counselor, happened to tune in to conservative talk-show host Michael Savage on the way home from work. By the time the President moved to quash it several days later with assurances that he wouldn't have allowed the deal "if there was any chance that this transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States," it was far too late to quell the Republican rebellion. "This freight train had already left the station," says a Bush aide. And the President's threat to use his first-ever veto was no obstacle to its momentum.
If there is any message that Bush should take forward after the blistering he got last week from virtually the entire Republican Party, it is that "Trust me" is no longer a viable political strategy. That's because nervous Republicans don't -- at least not when their futures are at stake. With Bush's bungling of the ports controversy, they are starting to say privately that they cannot afford to risk their fate on the agenda and instincts of an unpopular President who never has to face the voters again. What began months ago as a routine government-approval process for a business deal -- in this case, one made politically radioactive by the fact that it would allow an Arab-government-owned company to manage terminals at major U.S. ports -- has exploded into the sharpest and most bitter confrontation that Bush has had with his party. And it has hastened the declaration of independence toward which Republicans have been edging for months. "This is the tipping point," said a House leadership strategist. "No longer will Republicans sit idle when they have a difference with the President." A senior Senate aide spoke even more bluntly: "It's every man for himself."
But let's pause for a moment, if only to note that although security experts say there are plenty of reasons to be worried about the vulnerability of the nation's ports, the nationality of the companies that operate the terminals is not one of them. Only about 5% of the millions of containers that flow through the nation's ports are inspected, and there still are no standards for container locks and seals or for port-worker identification cards. The country has spent $18 billion on making airports more secure since Sept. 11, but it has invested only $630 million to safeguard the nation's ports, even though a study last year by the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard found that almost 70 of the 361 U.S. ports are vulnerable to terrorism.
While none of that is particularly comforting, it does make the outrage directed at Dubai Ports World, which has operated 23 facilities on five continents without a mote of protest, seem a bit unfair. And it raises the question of how the Administration is supposed to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world if it presumes that all businesses there are natural enemies. The President went so far as to ask, "those who are questioning
to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard."...
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