Few profiles in courage on port issue

John Podhoretz:

WILL there ever come a time when the company seeking American clearance to assume management of several major U.S. ports actually achieves its aim? After last week's political firestorm surrounding the company, which is called Dubai Ports World and is owned by the government of that Persian Gulf emirate, its directors clearly took the advice of the Bush administration and decided to institute a cooling-off period. It requested an additional 45-day review of the deal, clearly hoping that by late April, the whole business will be forgotten.

Over the past couple of days, reasonable pundits on both sides of the political spectrum have explained patiently that this is all a misunderstanding. Port security will not be damaged by the fact that a company owned by an Arab nation will be managing the flow of shipping goods in and out of New York and other cities. In fact, they have said convincingly, this is precisely the sort of deal we should be making with friendly Arab countries to reward their positive actions in the War on Terror.

That's all very nice. But does it matter?

No.

In the film version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," someone says of the movie's heroine, "She's a phony. But she's a real phony. She honestly believes all this phony junk she believes in."

The issue of the ports is probably a phony, just like the Wise Men are saying. But if it's a phony issue, it's a "real phony." The overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose the deal honestly believe it's wrong, and they won't be talked out of it so quickly.

It is true that the American people aren't really the best judges of international contracts and the language in them. But they are the judges of American politicians, and when an issue emerges from the shadows of Official Washington and the people weigh in, the politicians begin to shake at the knees. As politicians should.

...

When it comes to profiles in courage, President Bush appears to be a lonely exception to the pander to ignorance crowd particularly among Democrats.

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