Bush's ports deal doesn't help candidate Kean (NJ)

[ProSense]

Bush's ports deal doesn't help candidate Kean

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/26/06
BY CARL GOLDEN

In government, as a general rule when a major executive decision is to be made, it must be done at the right time, in the right place and under the right circumstances.

By approving a deal to permit a company based in the United Arab Emirates to operate six major American seaports, the Bush administration violated all three admonitions.

Snip...

Conversely, the timing couldn't have been worse for state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., the Republican Party's best hope to win the U.S. Senate seat, ending the party's 34-year drought.

Kean criticized the deal and called on Gov. Corzine to block the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from turning over control of Port Newark and Port Elizabeth facilities to the UAE-based company.

While Kean's recommendation is superior to Menendez's idea in that it could be done virtually immediately if the deal goes through rather than wait for the Congress to act, the public mood does not readily acknowledge such distinctions. The overwhelmingly prevailing view is that the deal is a lousy one and it matters not how it's stopped, but it must be stopped.

more...

Carl Golden, Burlington Township, served as press secretary to Republican Govs. Thomas H. Kean and Christine Todd Whitman.

Tom Sr.:

Snip...

Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan probe of the Sept. 11 attacks, said the deal was a big mistake because of past connections between the 2001 hijackers and the UAE.

"It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," Kean said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The quicker the Bush administration can get out of the deal, the better, he said. "There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060224/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ports_security

[LSparkle]

1. Father confirmed this to Tweety this afternoon/evening

He said the revelation that there were concerns on the part of the Coast Guard only confirms his feeling that this deal shouldn't happen at all.

[AX10]

2. Menendez will win a full term in the Senate come this fall.

[wakeme2008]

3. What IMHO is worse is Frist OKing the Deal

and pushing his members to vote in Lock Step for it.