Bipartisan US House Committee Proposes To Halt Dubai Port Deal

The House Appropriations Committee voted 62-2 today in support of legislation that would prohibit the Dubai-owned DP World from acquiring the Administrative contracts for 9 US ports.

President Bush has threatened to veto such legislation if it crosses his desk.

Personally, I hope he does. By doing so he gets the Executive Branch, the State and Commerce Departments off the hook, placing the full responsibility of the cancellation on the US Legislature.

I would guess that if the legislation passes the House and Senate once that there will likely be enough support to overide the veto.

Will this be enough to split the Republican party in Congress? No more than it already is! To be honest, this is one issue over which men and women of good will can differ without necessarily dividing along party lines. In light of the constant party-line divisions over Administration proposals during the past four years it may even be refreshing and helpful for Democrats and some Republicans to find something they can actually agree on.

Will this hurt President Bush politically? I doubt it. He is now a lame duck and his party faithful will only support him if an issue is core to their constituency or will otherwise help get them reelected this coming Fall.

Even so, some of the burbling gibberish usually associated with Democrats has begun to surface amongst the Republicans over this issue (Rep. Jerry Lewis R-CA offers a good example,

"This is a national security issue," said Rep. Jerry Lewis, the chairman of the panel. The California Republican said the legislation would "keep America's ports in American hands,"

a quote thoroughly trashed by both Cpt. Ed and Powerline's John Hinderocker).

There are, of course, legitimate issues of concern over this matter. But to obfuscate them with such uninformed clap-trap does not impress me much at all.