It seems like the reverse should be true, right? After all, the Dubai deal has brought extra focus on the eroding support amongst republicans for president Bush. Many appear ready to 'jump ship' based on his unwavering support of the UAE coupled with previous domestic failures.
Case in point, Jonathan at Crushliberalism has some interesting thoughts on this, pointing out how at a recent conservative forum hardly anyone could find a kind word for the direction Bush is taking the country. Actually that's too politically correct, the word venomous more aptly describes their feelings.
So, is Bush actually a deep cover democrat operative trying to rebalance Congress this fall by giving the voters a rock solid reason to change leadership? Doubtful, since the democrats have had no trouble snatching defeat from the jaws of victory all by themselves. No, it's more likely a Rovian thought process at work-- 'they'll continue to vote for us because the democrats still have no message, besides, people don't instictively trust them with kicking terrorist butt'.
That brings us back to Portgate. Bush surely has many new orifices in his body from the reaming he's taken over this, mainly from his own party, yet he still remains afloat. One reason is because this issue is not nearly as black and white as detractors would like us to believe.
For example, the Wall Street Journal has the details of a container attack on Israel--that is, jihadists stowed away inside a container and blew themselves up. Fact is, this was discussed long before the general public knew anything about DP World. We've been told ad nasueum that only 5-10 percent of containers are checked, so such nefarious things could be occurring right now without DP World even being remotely involved. It's simply impossible to carry on commerce if every container has to be opened and searched, and everyone knows it, including the terrorists.
Yet the rank and file republicans won't let the issue die as was intended by the 45 cooling off period. Keeping the issue aflame certainly hurts Bush, but at this point why would he care, he's a lame duck. Besides, should anyone on the left even remotely consider filing articles of impeachment over portgate they'd have to explain away the support of ex-presidents like Clinton and Carter.
The real fallout is that House and Senate republicans up for reelection get to keep their golden issue on the front burner--homeland security and fighting the war on terra. Discussed above, it's the one issue that keeps getting them elected, simply because people trust them more on it.
ABC NEWS HAS LEARNED.. 3/10/06
That Bush called the UAE Sheikhs and asked them to cancel the deal. Though it would not be surprising, the ABC article does not attribute this scoop to ANYONE, not even the ubiqitous anonymous source. It just says "ABC has learned." Heck, anyone could say that. I could say that.
But let the dems celebrate, they helped scuttle the deal. Hopefully they'll remain consistent on all this terrorism stuff. For instance, most of them supported the 9/11 Commission's finding that Atta and company were "non-state actors", meaning they weren't supported by any states.
And most of them opposed pigeon-holing Saddam Hussein as a terrorist just because he was an Arab.
Therefore, they should now begin their campaign to remove the ex-Taliban spokesman currently attending Yale. I expect Hillary and her northeastern liberal friends to take immediate action to deport this dangerous menace before he kills someone.
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