How Much Does a Good Port Cost?

I'm reluctant to jump on any bandwagon on the ports story, but Dick Meyer's commentary should give everyone reason to pause...

Never have I seen a bogus story explode so fast and so far. I thought I was a connoisseur of demagoguery and cheap shots, but the Dubai Ports World saga proves me a piker. With a stunning kinship of cravenness, politicians of all flavors risk trampling each other as they rush to the cameras and microphones to condemn the handover of massive U.S. strategic assets to an Islamic, Arab terrorist-loving enemy.

The only problem -- and I admit it's only a teeny-weeny problem -- is that 90 percent of that story is false.

The United Arab Emirates is not an Axis of Evil kind of place, it will not own U.S. ports, it will not control security at U.S. ports and there is nothing new about foreigners owning U.S. ports. Odds are higher that you'll be wounded interfering with a congressman providing soundbites than by something smuggled into a port terminal leased by Dubai Ports World.

(hat tip: Polipundit) I will say the President's threat to use his veto on this issue is silly -- since he hasn't vetoed a single bloated spending bill, will Congress really believe him on this veto threat? And to critics like Lileks who say the decision is politically tone-deaf... they're right. That doesn't mean the deal is wrong -- it just means that they should have handled it better.