TIME: Is the Dubai Ports Deal Doomed?

[PhilipShore]

TIME
Is the Dubai Ports Deal Doomed?
Mar. 02, 2006

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1169480,00.html

Republican objections to the Dubai ports deal haven't stabilized in Congress this week, despite the promise of a 45-day delay and nonstop crisis management by the Bush Administration. If anything, they've increased.

While officials of Dubai Ports World tried to calm the waters in Congressional hearings and over the airwaves, opposition to the deal inside the House is actually growing with reports that the government is considering other strategic sales to the United Arab Emirates.

GOP lawmakers raised new questions about the ports deal, alleging that the UAE is too eaily infiltrated by terrorists and asking the Administration to explain whether U.S. terminal-operating companies could bid on UAE terminal work. But what really ticked off GOP lawmakers were the details of a much-ballyhooed 45-day cooling-off period, which turned out to be not a delay or review at all but just another way for Bush to say, "We've already made up our minds. We're just going to delay the paperwork for a month or so." Lawmakers regarded this gambit as another example of the Administration ignoring the will of Congress when consultation might have done the President some good.

Such repeated signs of contempt for Congress is a little hard for GOP members to swallow in the wake of the repeatedly amateurish White House handling of just about everything for the last year, ranging from the Harriet Miers nomination to the federal response to Hurricane Katrina to the dead-from-the-start Social Security reform initiative. Bush's performance has driven the entire party's poll numbers down, and with it many members' odds of re-election. Consequently, Republican confidence in the White House has crashed to an all-time low. "The White House has a huge challenge on its hands," Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma told TIME.com. "They don't have the ability or credibility to carry this deal on their own."

[Oversea Visitor]

1. No

Just stark reality
of bush mismanagement
All this palying with soldiers stupid
Breaking the country
Set up nice for buy out

US up for sale.

[Skink]

2. Keep the non veto streak alive.

History in the making.