Every Inlet an Outlet for Anger Over Ports By Dana Milbank
Is there no safe harbor from the Dubai port imbroglio?
Wherever they went yesterday, and whatever they spoke about, Bush administration officials could find no shelter. The controversy intruded on President Bush when he tried talk about NATO and Afghanistan with the Italian prime minister. It stalked Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte at the Senate Armed Services Committee, followed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to the Senate Appropriations Committee, and harassed Chertoff deputy Michael P. Jackson at the Senate Commerce Committee.
Even the U.S.S. Ken Mehlman, an agile vessel, could not successfully navigate the port deal's shoals. Appearing before the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Republican National Committee chairman tucked a one-sentence, indirect reference to the fuss nearly 20 minutes into his speech -- "We have a military presence in the United Arab Emirates that is vital to stability" -- then left before he could be questioned about the deal.
Mehlman's Democratic counterpart, Howard Dean, wasn't about to let Mehlman off the hook with that. Next on the JCPA stage, Dean reordered his speech, which usually starts with a jeremiad about Republican corruption. "I want first to speak about defense," Dean said, pivoting to the ports.
"Today we see the specter, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, of a company who is about to take over American ports, which actively continues today to boycott Israel," the Democratic National Committee chairman declared. "Foreign governments of any kind ought not to be controlling American ports, especially when the Coast Guard already recommended that they could not guarantee the security of the ports."
The crowd loved it. "Isn't xenophobia wonderful?" a delegate at the New Jersey table wondered aloud.
No matter what the ostensible subject matter, virtually every political gathering yesterday eventually listed toward ports. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) started talking about it at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the NSA's National Security Agency's eavesdropping program. Former president Bill Clinton, giving a news conference about health care at the National Governors Association meeting, fielded a battery of questions about the ports. "This has shocked us into facing the fact that we have repeatedly failed to secure our ports in a proper way," he scolded.
The incessant talk about ports drove the Associated Press to distraction. The wire agency, issuing the seventh version of its port security story at 2:30 p.m., suddenly and without warning turned Chertoff into a cigar and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) into an Eskimo moccasin. "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Cheroot called the Coast Guard documents 'an early report,' " the AP reported. "Pressed by Sen. Barbara Mukluks, D-Md., Cheroot said he saw the Coast Guard memo 'about a week ago.' "
Only Vice President Cheney found a way to avoid any discussion of the port deal. He gave a 24-minute speech to the American Legion without even a peep about Dubai Ports World -- and he left without taking questions.
Mehlman, at the Jewish group, attempted the same strategy, at first telling the audience he wouldn't take questions. When organizers resisted, he agreed to take questions on index cards screened by a moderator. The gambit worked: Mehlman's four questions were soft, including one asking him about "the leadership the president has shown" on Sudan.
His boss was not so lucky. In the Oval Office photo op with Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, the president spoke about Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Olympics -- anything but the ports. But, inevitably, a reporter floated a port question.
"My position hasn't changed," Bush snapped, suggesting to members of Congress to "please look at the facts."
When he finished his answer, he turned to the interpreter. "You don't need to interpret," the president said. "That's a U.S. question."
There was good cause for the presidential prickliness. A new CBS News-New York Times poll found Bush's support at 34 percent -- only 18 percent rated Cheney favorably -- with just 21 percent favoring the United Arab Emirates deal.
Republican lawmakers continued to drift from Bush on the port deal.
Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) signed a letter to the administration demanding more answers. Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) used a subcommittee hearing he chaired to accuse the administration of adding "further confusion" with its explanation of the Coast Guard memo questioning the deal.
At another hearing, Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.) said he had no security worries about the deal, but he still criticized the administration for "allowing people to demagogue this thing."
And Rep. John A. Boehner (Ohio), giving his first sit-down session with reporters since becoming House majority leader, said he remained "a bit surprised no one on the political level is part of this process."
It was becoming clear that the president was not going to bid this issue Dubai anytime soon. The White House tried, gamely, to move on. The press office issued a presidential proclamation announcing "Save Your Vision Week, 2006." A few hours later, Bush boarded Air Force One for a trip to the relative tranquility of India.