John Kerry on Demise of Dubai Ports Deal

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry on Demise of Dubai Ports Deal
March 9th, 2006 @ 1:26 pm

As reported here earlier, Dubai Ports World has announced they will “transfer fully the U.S. operation of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity.”

Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry on that announcement:

“Today the plug was mercifully pulled on the ownership of U.S. port operations by Dubai Ports World. It’s been a case study in the Administration’s incompetence and inattention to the fundamental issue of port security. The question is, will anything change now? The Bush Administration needs to come to terms with the reality that four-and-a-half years after September 11th the government still can’t get past go on port security.

“Dubai deal or no Dubai deal, it’s clear that this is just the tip of the iceberg of the Administration’s failure on port security. A new report from the Department of Homeland Security shows that Target does a better job monitoring their stores than our government does monitoring our ports. Their failure to put together a basic program after all the warnings must be a wake-up call to finally get it right on homeland security.”

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=2191

[karynnj]

1. Target does a better job monitoring its stores

Great atatement.

[ProSense]

2. Another gem! n/t

[karynnj]

3. Matthews is at it again

He had Duncan Hunter on who says that the Dubai deal won't hurt Bush because they looked around to find out who was advising them and found the Clinton was and so was a "Kerry staffer". I wasn't paying enough attention so he may have said ex-staffer, but there was no name given.

[TayTay]

4. OMG it was the Clenis!

The Clenis made them do it. The all-powerful Clenis. Damn, I hate it when that happens. Sigh!

So, Ahm, Bush is off the hook because Bill Clinton mentioned Dubai and told the UAE to hold off on the deal for 45 days. That's some, ahm, argument. I think all these Rethugs are now officially classified as being 'on drugs.'

[whometense]

5. JK mentioned in WaPo editorial

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/09/AR2006030902288_pf.html

...The port deal has provided ammunition to Democrats who have begun making the case more broadly that Bush is in over his head. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday called the port situation a "case study in the administration's incompetence," and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said the administration "was clearly asleep at the switch" and "bungled the oversight of this deal."

Of course, being the MSM they had to add the big BUT:

But it's not clear whether Democrats will be able to turn that issue to their benefit in the fall. Republicans on Capitol Hill were every bit as vocal as their opponents in standing against the port deal, making it harder to draw a clear distinction come campaign time. By turning against Bush, some GOP strategists believe Republican leaders may have saved themselves a worse fate.

"I never thought we would see a day when anybody would get to the president's right on national security," Fabrizio said. "They may have made chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what. If the Democrats had been able to use this, it would have been horrible, horrible."

[wisteria]

6. Horrible huh? That's entirely arguable. I for one would be ecstatic

if the Republicans lost a lot of credibility on national security issues.:7