Fracturing Coalition

8 March 2006



Congressman Lewis Leads GOP Revolt against Port Deal

For five years, Congress has willingly gone along with the White House on everything from tax cuts to war. The rubber-stamping of administration policy papers came to an end yesterday. Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) split with President George “LBJ” Bush over the Dubai Ports World deal just as surely as his namesake split with Dean Martin all those years ago. It is all the more damaging to the White House because Republican legislators are strongly backing Congressman Lewis.

This journal has always maintained that the current Republican Party is an alliance of distinct groups: the reactionary faux Christians, the national security chicken hawks, the Wall Street Welfare crowd, and the libertarian small government faction (which is close to being extinct in the GOP). Under the DPW deal, a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates will purchase, among other things, US port terminals from Britain’s P&O. This brings the national security faction into conflict with the business interests that bankroll the GOP.

According to the president and the Wall Street crowd, selling the terminals to DPW is good business, and the government should stay out of the marketplace. According to the president’s opponents on the issue, the UAE has been tangled up in terrorism for a long time, or the US should control its own ports facilities, or the British are one thing while the Arabs . . . well, really.

There have been a couple of attempts to paper over the dispute. Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, played the anti-socialism card, “We believe that the US should not allow a government-run company to operate American ports.” Meanwhile, Congressman Peter King (R-NY), former (?) supporter of the IRA terrorists, has suggested that the deal should go through but DPW should subcontract the US ports out to a US firm – effectively removing the whole dang bunch of foreigners from the ports.

However, the tension will remain for as long as America believes itself to be under threat. Free trade, properly implemented, works well as an engine of economic growth for all parties. National security is what governments exist to provide. When there is a conflict between those two interests, it is difficult to come up with a ready rule for deciding what to do.

However, in this particular case, the resolution is simple enough. Given the vulnerability of America’s ports (thanks to the neglect of both the White House and Congress before and after the Al Qaeda murders of September 11, 2001), US port facilities should be under US ownership. And with all due respect to Mr. Bonjean, the American government ought to run them using the Navy or Coast Guard until the war ends. Only a defeatist would suggest the DPW or any private for-profit entity can keep America’s ports safer than the US military. This journal awaits the President’s rebuttal.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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