Congresspeople are thinking above their pay grades. Again.
WASHINGTON - In a congressional election-year repudiation of President Bush, a House panel dominated by Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to block a Dubai-owned firm from taking control of some U.S port operations. Democrats clamored for a vote in the Senate, too.By 62-2, the House Appropriations Committee voted to bar DP World, run by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, from holding leases or contracts at U.S. ports. The landslide vote was the strongest signal yet that more than three weeks of White House efforts to stunt congressional opposition to the deal have not been successful.{...}
{my emphasis}
Or you could rephrase that bit in bold to read: "The lanslide vote was the strongest signal yet that in more than three weeks of Congressional electoral grandstanding that the White House has yet to cave to these morons' demands." It just all depends upon how you want to look at it.
{Insert best, booming Ron Popeil Voice Here}
But wait, there's more...
{...}Raising the stakes, the panel attached the ports language to a must-pass $91 billion measure financing hurricane recovery and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The committee was to approve the entire bill late Wednesday and the full House could consider that measure as early as next week.{...}
I do so enjoy interparty blackmail, don't you? Keeps things lively.
/sarcasm.
If the GOP really is the party of national security; the party that will keep our country safe, well, one might think they, ahem, might actually want to achieve that goal. Alienating the UAE so Congresspeople can look like they're tough on terror in their primaries this spring and actual races this fall is the height of stupidity, and as I've written previously, is actually more damaging to our national security than this port deal ever will be.
Posted by Kathy at March 8, 2006 09:59 PM | TrackBack