PORT PROBLEM: WHITE HOUSE MESS

Dubai ports firm enforces Israel boycott
The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

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No Republican politician is going to commit career suicide simply because the president asks him to. In 2002, his politically brilliant handling of the homeland-security issue won the Senate back for his party. In 2006, he came out of the White House and essentially demanded that Republicans on Capitol Hill fall in line on a matter that is far too complicated for him or them to explain — and risk his party's majorities in the House and Senate.

Not gonna happen. Only hours after Bush made his veto threat, the Republican leader of the Senate, Bill Frist, went on Hugh Hewitt's nationally syndicated radio show and said the votes would be there to override Bush's veto.

There are suggestions that the White House has finally gotten the message. Yesterday afternoon, Bush's chief political adviser Karl Rove went on Tony Snow's radio show and said the administration might be amenable to a delay of 45 days or so in approving the deal to give Congress a "comfort level" on it. Want to bet that "delay" will stretch from now through the election? New York Post

A PORT IN THE STORM
And this is who the Bush administration thinks should be at the controls of computer keyboards that could sabotage cargo-container manifests at America's ports?

Here's a scary scenario to consider: How hard would it be for someone with the right security profile in the UAE to switch out a container with spare car parts bound for New York, with another container that has enriched uranium bound for Miami? Experts I've spoken with tell me it's not that hard at all. In fact, something similar already happened in Singapore with a load of fireworks.

If the GOP isn't careful, we're all soon going to be using the title "House Speaker" to identify Nancy Pelosi. I don't know about you, but that's a scary thought.

Now is the time for someone like Karen Hughes or someone else who the president trusts, to step in and help President Bush navigate back to a safe port in this political storm. World Net Daily

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was not aware a Dubai-owned company was seeking to operate terminals in six U.S. ports and that his agency was leading the review until after the deal's approval, an administration official said yesterday.

Both Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow have publicly said they were unaware of the deal. Bush wasn't informed by his advisors.

We have a Homeland Security Secretary, a Defense Secretary, a Treasury Secretary and a President unaware a Dubai-owned company was seeking to operate terminals in six U.S. ports. Yea, right!
Donald Rumsfeld didn't know about the sale of the ports until he read about it in the newspapers, although his representative sat on the government panel that OK'd the sale. John Snow, the secretary of the Treasury, actually chairs that committee but he, too, sent a deputy to the meeting and had to read about it in the paper.

George W. Bush is about to fritter away his party's last advantage. What Republicans have had going for them is that they aren't Democrats. Over the past few days we've seen the men at the top of the Grumpy Old Party drifting toward something that looks suspiciously like an Old Boys' Party.

When he hears applause only from Jimmy Carter, who gave away the Panama Canal (now controlled by the Chinese), and Bill Clinton, his newly adopted little brother, George W. should be looking for the panic button. Pruden

They're aware the GOP is toast in November if they don't back off.
They were probably listening to Limbaugh's BS on this subject?