The Republican Split and the Super Powers Alliance

I don't mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say. --Margaret Thatcher

Here it is! In plain language--spelled out for everyone who may be confused by the split in the Republican party over the Dubai Ports World "deal." Wes Pruden is on target--as usual, I might say--and as he suggests there are two factions in the Republican party but there is still time before the 2008 elections to learn something from the split. (Full story here.)

...John W. Snow, the secretary of the Treasury, and Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, offered a succinct summary of the creed of the Corporate Republican in an op-ed essay in this newspaper: "On this issue, the United States has a responsibility to act according to established procedures and to act without bias." ([Emphasis] mine.)

Without bias? The Heartfelt Republican -- indeed, most Americans of whatever partisan hue -- will always act with bias if it's bias in favor of the United States. If it's good for America, it's good enough for General Motors, and not the other way around, as a chairman of GM famously put it in another time, another place. Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask instead what you can do for your country, even if it means upsetting the schemes of the elites. Arguments by the Corporate Republican that the Dubai deal is "a good business deal" will never resonate with the Heartfelt Republican. Making a buck is important, but "loving your country more than anything else in the world" is most important of all.

Belief and conviction puzzle the elites. Since the elites often regard a church as merely a convenient place to marry their daughters and bury their parents, they imagine that our Islamist enemies don't really believe that religious stuff, either. A good business deal, struck over brandy and cigars, is what's worth fighting for.

Do read his full story, my excerpt is incomplete. (Full story here.)

Let's shift gears a little
First, I do want to say that we DPW detractors haven't been completely wrong. We did not learn enough information soon enough about this deal and the President's grander goals to evaluate them properly. And we do still hold out hope that future legislation will curtain future business enterprises for foreign government-owned entities at our points of embarcation. Grandfather clauses probably would be okay.

Some will complain about the way these events unfolded. They will have wanted the MSM to carry every detail in time to ruin the success of every agreement, or perhaps put our President's life and the lives of those who travel with him, in jeopardy on this trip. Then they could make political hay out of second-guessing each issue before it was presented. They, too, could virtually have been at the negotiating tables, undermining their own country's efforts as each proposal unfolded.

See, the electeds have a lot of time on their hands. They aren't really doing anything--they plot, they introduce legislation (mostly grand-standing legislation), but they don't actually accomplish much. Their next big job will be getting their parties elected in 2008 and they've already gone to work on that task.

Their concerns are small potatoes compared to the issues our President wrestles with daily: imagine the burden of carrying the future of this country on your shoulders while all the while people are second-guessing you and nipping at your heels to try to make you stumble. Even if the future of the Country would be the price we would pay if you did.

Well, as I watched the live press conference between Prime Minister Singh of India and President Bush last night, I had a flash of insight. Now, I admit to being slow on the uptake sometimes, and this was one of those times, but as the two leaders stood discussing the agreements they'd reached, once again I could see the pure genius of our President's plan.

Fearlessly going where no President had gone for 50+ years (Afghanistan) and now taking his arguments for agreement on nuclear power proliferation directly to the heads of state of Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan--and coming away with trade agreements as well--well, I've got to tell you, I'm thinking Ronald Reagan and Russia, and Nixon and China. Those were huge feats of accomplishment. And, honestly, this bull dog of a President seems determined to take this country to a place of protected safety from nuclear despots before he's done. I looked on with nothing but admiration for his ability to accomplish his "big picture" goals in spite of obstacles from his political opposition and, even, from within his own party.

I still don't love the Dubai deal. But if it goes forward with enough assurances for safety to our infrastructure and systems, and, at the same time, really causes us to do whatever is necessary to tighten airport security at all our airports and water port security at all our ports to a comfort zone about which the collective US population can feel secure, I can live with it. And I can admit having underestimated my President on several fronts. Aren't I glad that I live in a country where I CAN opine willy nilly to my heart's content and where I CAN be wrong about my President's decisions?

I'll have been wrong that President Bush handed the 2008 elections to the malignant narcissistic left on a silver platter, and that he has put a biased emphasis on Corporate Republicans' concerns at the expense of the Heartfelt Republicans--and Democrats, as well. And NOTHING could make me happier.

We'll wait and see, but these alliances are going to just "kill" our enemies' plans for overtaking the world. The radical Muslims and the wacko Iranian leadership may go out in a blaze of something, but it won't be glory and it won't mean they've won anything. Because now, thanks to our President's leadership, their geographic neighbors, together with the major powers around the world, will be in agreement that barbarians and despots should not have nuclear weapons. And that they should not have an opportunity to annilhilate any of the rest of mankind.

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Both photo credits: Eric Draper, White House Photographer