Dubai Port Takeover Deal: Bush’s Donnybrook

[kerrygoddess]

Bush’s Donnybrook
February 22nd, 2006 @ 8:27 pm



MSNBC reports that the Dubai Port takeover deal is “an emerging headache” for Bush:

President Bush’s marquee issue, the war on terrorism, is being used against him by Democrats and rebelling members of his own party in a donnybrook that may prove to be a major headache in an election year.

In a sign of the growing bipartisan opposition to the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, lawmakers on Wednesday ratcheted up their displeasure with President Bush, some saying that they could override a threatened presidential veto.

On the heels of debacles over government eavesdropping, Katrina recovery and Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident, people in both parties are suggesting the port security issue is another case of Bush appearing to be tone deaf to controversy.

{SNIP}
One North Carolina lawmaker Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., echoed the sentiment of the photo above and “expressed the anger of many lawmakers when she sent Bush a one-sentence letter”:

“Dear Mr. President:
In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO — but HELL NO!”

Myrick’s office reported that she “had been getting a lot of angry constituent phone calls and e-mail.” The public is beyond concerned about this deal.

And as I reported here early this morning, MSNBC now reports that “Sen. John Kerry sent a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, seeking full disclosure on the deal with Dubai Ports World.”

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=2029

[GrumpyGreg]

1. I had kind of been dreaming about a trip to Dubai and the

fabulous Burj al Arab Hotel and to see Palm Island.

I actually did some research on it 10 days ago,before all of this brouhaha.

[SONUVABUSH]

2. one big

clusterfuck...the latest in a long line of em'.

[kerrygoddess]

4. Exactly! N/T

[Rageneau]

3. The Freepers and wingnuts are crawling back to Bush already.

If you saw the Colbert Report tonight, you saw Steven try to reconcile his "gut" feeling that Bush has to be right, with his "brain", which was telling him Bush was dead wrong. After a few minutes of going back and forth, he finally emerged from Room 101 happily believing that Bush was both right and wrong and therefore was completely right.

Two and two equals five if you really need it to.

The same thing is happening over Free Republic. They are going through contortions to enable themselves to believe that this Dubai deal -- which looks so obviously wrong to the logical parts of our brain -- is actually A-OK because it makes them happier to trust Bush -- no matter what -- than it does to face facts.

Most of them are already back on Smirk's team -- and are claiming that Bush will emerge from this with another victory over the Dems

[Jacobin]

6. That's whats so nice about belonging to a cult

Reality NEVER EVER interferes with your beliefs!!

Very convenient and comforting to the cult members

[yellowcanine]

5. The "terra" scare tactics have come back to bite Bush in the butt.

Isn't karma great?

"What goes around comes around."
"You reap what you sow."
"He who lives by the sword dies by the sword."

Heh.

[realFedUp]

7. The political angle is the only one I'm enjoying on this issue. nt