Fear And Bigotry Bite Bush On The Ass

The Bush administration has given the okay for a company owned by the United Arab Emirates to take control of six major US ports on the east coast. President Bush said Tuesday that he would veto any effort by the Congress to halt the sale and Tom Ridge went on Hardball to inform us that we shouldn’t worry about the security aspect of the sale because it was approved by Donald “I can lose a war but good” Rumsfeld, Condi “I ignored the PDB that said Osama bin Laden determined to strike inside US” Rice, Alberto “torturing people will make us friends around the world, I’m sure of it” Gonzales and Michael “forget terrorism, I can’t even handle a hurricane” Chertoff. Yeah, I feel better already.

Besides the fact that support for this sale makes Bush look incompetent and uninterested in protecting the homeland, this is a political blunder of epic proportions. Not only are Bill Frist, Denny Hastert and Curt Weldon speaking out against the sale, but even right wing radio is flooded with calls, few if any in support of the sale. It’s hard to imagine that Karl Rove would make such an oversight, relying as he does on the bigotry and fear of Bush’s most fervent supporters. The Bush administration has spent six years instilling fear of terrorism and fueling hatred of Arabs and Muslims within their base, they shouldn’t be surprised now that these same people are upset at the prospect of an Arab country taking control of American ports. Any idiot could have seen this coming, even Rove and Bush, which leaves the impression that there must be something in this secret deal worth taking this heat over.

With Bush’s support hovering in the high 30% range and his base up in arms about this sale, we may yet see the President's support reach new all time lows. Republicans seeking reelection this year might not want to be seen at the President's side on this one, lest they should be tagged by their Democratic opponents as “soft on terrorism.” But if we’ve learned anything from the last six years of Bush rule, it’s that they can always find a way to stop the lapdogs in Congress from yipping. We should start a pool on how long it will be before secret meetings with the White House result in full support of the sale by Hastert, Frist, Weldon and all the rest of the well-trained Republican rank and file. The real trick will be getting Joe Blow and Jane Nobrain to embrace Arab control of American ports. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it will be a trick worth watching.