"Presumably they are in the port-management business for the money"

"The Burj [Al Arab] resembles a billowing mainsail pulling Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach into the sea," writes AutoWeek's Natalie Neff. "The proprietors of the hotel like to call it the world’s only seven-star hotel, though I never learned exactly what comes with all those extra stars. Besides security, that is." We checked the rates and found a "Deluxe King One Bedroom" suite goes for just over $1400 per night. (Deluxe Suite Bathroom still, above, from "Take a Virtual Tour of the Burj Al Arab") The Jumeirah Essex House - New York on Central Park South is the latest addition to Jumeirah's portfolio. The CEO, Gerald Lawless, an Irishman by birth, "has spent sixteen years in the Gulf, having worked in Dubai originally from 1978 to 1982 and later in Bahrain."

"Wacky architecture aside, typical Dubaians seem to behave as would any folk who suddenly came into gobs and gobs of dough: They buy cars. Very. Expensive. Cars," writes Natalie Neff of AutoWeek's Awblogs -- who knew? --re the "terrorist haven" demagogues have spun from whole cloth this week in the matter of the Dubai ports-management decision:

Of course, the reason I went to Dubai in the first place was to test-drive Porsche’s new Cayenne Turbo S, but as we rolled through the city in our deep-green SUV, few heads turned our way. Despite our barely-ready-for-public-consumption wheels, we hardly stood out in the crowd of bazillion-dollar cars in which we found ourselves . . .

I tried to convey to mom how magical and wonderful a place I found Dubai, to quell her misgivings as to its proximity to the war. As we ate our birthday dinner, I gave her all the presents I brought back: fresh dried dates stuffed with pistachios; gourmet chocolates wrapped in extravagant boxes and hand-carved nesting dolls painted like beautiful veiled women. Then I told her about the belly dancers, the palatial estates, the beaches where bikinis mingled with birkhas and eating under tents in the desert like the Bedouins of old. I think she finally got it.

Now if only what Tony Snow calls "the fulminating honorables" would finally get it. They might have, notes Tony "if even one of them had bothered to contact a single person working at or running a port":

The good news is that politicians appreciate the absurdity of the position. On Thursday, Karl Rove extended an olive branch, noting that the administration is willing to let Congress study the matter for 45 days, if necessary.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who got this riot started, quickly declared that he would like that. The White House knows that, in time, facts will annihilate the Know-Nothings, who have swilled a cocktail of ignorance and knee-knocking fear of Muslim Arabs.

"An alternative way of looking at the Dubai Ports World decision is that it finally binds an Arab nation to our side in the war on terror and that it represents a recognition by some Arab elites that their self-interest coincides with ours," adds the WSJ's Daniel Henninger:

Dubai was already cooperating in tracing and identifying al Qaeda's financial flows. Presumably they are in the port-management business for the money. Now you may disagree with this, but there is at least an upside and downside here worth weighing. No chance of that now. The press yesterday clearly set the chalk lines for public discussion on the ports: The only issue now is whether the White House caves to "bipartisan pressure."

We were encouraged with the serious tenor of Sen. John Warner's Armed Services Committee briefing of Bush administration officials yesterday. Members of the press were allowed to sit in the briefing room and ask questions following the lawmakers' question period. Hillary's bullying tone is never easy on the ears -- or the nerves -- but Senator Warner was always reassuringly in control.

Comments

[jay lassiter]

Sissy,
I have been getting a lot of crap in the liberal blogosphere for my suggestion that maybe the left should take a deep breath on this whole port thing.
http://einkleinesblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/maybe-bush-has-point.html
Personally, whenever HRC and rick santorum come down on the same side of *anything* I must be skeptical.
You're right, Hillary continues to grate, and Warner handled things with considerable aplomb. I should note that republicans are paying a lot more attention to Madame Clinton that we liberals are.
The good news?? Look we're talking about port security! This is a GOOD thing!
May cooler heads prevail.
thanks as usual for your smart and totally fresh perspective.

[Teresa]

Like I was trying to say a couple of days ago with my post. This looks like more of a PR disaster than anything else. Those who support the changeover have been abysmally slow to tell us what is going on - how it all works.

Everyone was talking about the Dubai company doing port security which was never the case but they didn't tell us what they actually DO - I mean - what ARE "port operations"? I still don't know, then again I've been very busy lately and too tired to look into it. However, I think this puts me in league with most Americans on this thing. They only get little glimpses of people screaming that the sky is falling... they don't know what it's all about, and no one is enlightening them.

Bad Bad PR.

[goomp]

You and Tony Snow have a handle on the true situation, and I agree non-radical Muslims should be encouraged to be our allies. The Saudi royals have accomodated the radical killers thru fear but today are beginning to suffer suicide tactics against their oil refineries. The mainstream Arab world is coming to see that we all must unite against the radical terrorists