After following GWB for five years like a pack of hyenas or mindless lemmings, GOP Congressional Representatives facing the electorate about 8 months from now have finally lifted their noses to the political winds and found the aroma more of a stench than a blissful scent. Finally beginning to realize that the path upon which they have been "led" has brought them to an untenable quagmire, the signs of revolt are breaking out everywhere. Recrimination, back biting and other distinctly non-collegial behaviors are becoming so evident that the media is obliged to report breaks in the ranks, despite their reluctance to report any discouraging word regarding the Bush/Cheney "Empire's" reign.
The Bush administration, with Karl Rove at the helm, has so successfully created hype and hysteria based upon bigoted race and religious fears that the nation is cautiously looking for the enemy" under every bed and especially among non-white people or those of a non-Christian religion. Civil rights protections have been trampled and abandoned with only marginal protest, and daily lives substantially burdened for the sake of an illusion of "national security." With the country primed to distrust and hate all things "Arab," the White House was caught unawares when approval of a multi-billion dollar deal to turn over operational control of six major US ports to a company owned by a United Arab Emirates nation surfaced. This really put Bush in the middle of a mess. Eager to appear publicly like he knew what he was doing, Bush reacted to criticism of the deal by threatening to veto any legislation intended to block the deal. News leaked out that Bush was not even on top of the details of the transaction when the story broke, a typical state of awareness Bush seems to exhibit when critical affairs of state arise.
After months and months of stumping around the nation spouting platitudes that he promises to do everything in his power to protect "national security" and the American people, the White House support for ceding control of major ports to a company owned by a Nation that had direct involvement in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 seemed a bit too much for even the hyenas to swallow. GOP representatives and even Congressional GOP leadership threatened to introduce legislation to block the deal unless the White House backed down. Congressional Democrats could express public "outrage" while sitting back in their impotent seats and allowing the GOP to savage its own.
As a practical matter, it is far from clear that the operation of Major US ports would be any less safe under the direction of a company owned by Dubai or any other country. The current port operations involve a variety of companies handling imports and freight. A recent study showed that a substantial percentage of the workers and truck drivers currently handling freight at major ports have criminal records and false identification papers. So the situation would be unlikely to worsen, and the ports are very far from "safe" or "secure" at the present time, more than four years after 9/11 and after Bush began making his pledge to the American people.
But the furor created by the Port operations deal is based largely upon bigotry incited by the Bush Administration and the GOP Leadership [with the help of some supposed "leaders" in the Democratic loyal opposition] against Arabs and Muslims. It is an unfortunate storm that speaks ill of the character of this Nation and its people. But it is a storm of choice, not a force of nature or "act of God" by any means. The controversy is not really about making the ports safer from potential terrorist threats, any more than invading Iraq was about making the US safer. In a larger sense, it is about a collision between a basic GOP principle of "Free Trade" and an Administration committed to amoral exploitation, corruption and greed. But for the polemics and hyperbole necessitated by the phony "War on Terror" used as a cover for the orchestrated illegal invasion of Iraq in order to gain control of Middle east petroleum reserves, the ports deal would probably not have seen major opposition. But the public/electorate is attuned to distrust all things Arab as a potential threat to "national security."
Caught in a quagmire of philosophical contradiction and public distrust as a result of moves orchestrated by ineffectual and incompetent White House leadership, GOP Congressional Representatives fear the November "killing fields" of the electorate where they will be caught in a crossfire between a staunch GOP base accusing them of party disloyalty, and other voters blaming them for following Bush into such a stupid situation in the first place without thinking or questioning the rationality of Administration policies and actions. Democrats who supported the President and GOP moves that led to this quagmire should be similarly concerned. Listening to the rhetoric and sloganeering, instead of putting in the effort to truly examine what was being done may prove to have been not only lazy, but politically dangerous.
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