Port Deal Fallout

By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
March 15, 2006

(CNSNews.com) -- The controversy over a proposal to allow Dubai Ports World to operate terminals at some major U.S. ports may have hurt President Bush's approval rating, but it could be helping some members of Congress move legislation they believe is needed to better protect U.S. seaports from terrorist threats.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity, believes most Americans are now more aware of port security deficiencies than they were even a month ago.

"If there's anything we learned in the last couple of weeks with the Dubai incident, it was the importance of this issue," Lungren said. "There was a lot of give-and-take on that. There was a lot of political fallout from that but, if there was any silver lining, it was the focus that that incident placed on the need for security of our ports."

I predicted that the ultimate fallout from the Port Deal would benefit Republicans. Because of their control of both houses of congress any legislation that addresses the sieve-like quality of our port security will have to come from Republicans. In November voters will remember who fixed (or at least appeared to fix) the problem, not who yelled about it the loudest eight or nine months ago.