"Portgate"

Anyone who knows my background, knows that I'm not crazy about the Bush Administration, but I have to say that this is one time I'm siding with them.

I don't get the whole flap about a company owned by the United Arab Emirates running major ports in our country. I can understand some apprehension being that the potential owners are from a current global hotspot, but that doesn't mean we go as nuts as some in Congress have been doing.

Congress in my view is trying to take the easy way out. It's easy to take potshots at a weakened President or at an ethnic group. It's much easier to devise an approach that will secure our nation's ports without resorting to cheap xenophobia.

Clearly, port security in the post 9/11 era is a top concern, but it is not going to be solved by blocking foreign companies from running our ports.

As a fellow blogger has said, the UAE isn't going to plunk to down a huge chunk of change just so that they can come in and blow up stuff. The UAE wants to diversify its economy away from oil and this is one way it can.

I don't need to remind people that the 9/11 hijackers flew jets owned by American airlines, and were trained by Americans to fly the planes they used as bombs. If the terrorists want to hit us, they don't need ports owned by Arabs.

Blocking this deal isn't going to make us safer. Maybe Congress can get off its high horse and developed a real plan for port security other than their current "America First" plan. But that would make too much sense.