The president's motive in the ports deal

People used words like "inexplicable" and "insane." Why would a president who gives two speeches a week on the danger of terrorism agree to the sale of U.S. port operations to a company owned by an Arab country with a history of ties to al-Qaeda? Why would he stand on the White House lawn and threaten to veto any bill that blocks the sale, even as he insists that he just found out about it himself?

There's always a reason.

On Thursday the White House released word that the United Arab Emirates had donated $100 million for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The donation was made, the AP reported Friday, "just weeks before Dubai Ports sought approval for its business deal," and was "nearly four times as much as the administration received from all other countries combined."

That's not the reason. Not unless the administration officials who approved the deal listed their family members as victims of Hurricane Katrina and pocketed the whole hundred million themselves. Even then, you'd have to believe President Bush was one of those family members to explain his foot-stamping tantrum on the White House lawn last Tuesday.

But maybe it holds a clue to the reason. Maybe we should follow the money.

Thursday's AP report on the UAE's hurricane-relief donation included this paragraph, slipped in at the end where you might have missed it:

The United Arab Emirates has long-standing ties to the Bush family. Records show the UAE and one of its sheikhs contributed at least $1 million before 1995 to the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas.

By coincidence, or maybe not by coincidence, President Bush is presently reviewing four competing proposals from Texas schools anxious to be chosen as the site of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

This fact came to light in connection with a lawsuit by Dallas lawyer Gary Vodicka, who is suing Southern Methodist University to find out if the school intends to force him out of his home in order to acquire his land for the Bush library. Four schools have submitted proposals to President and Mrs. Bush, all four have been subpoenaed in the lawsuit, and all four are refusing to release their proposals until President and Mrs. Bush award the bid, a decision that is expected about a month from now.

Needless to say, there's a fair amount of fund-raising involved in building a presidential library.

Could it be that President Bush's fund-raisers are hitting up the United Arab Emirates at this very moment?

Imagine how upset the president would be if, just as the friendly leaders of the UAE were about to sign the check, they switched on CNN and saw half the United States Congress attacking them as suspicious characters with ties to al-Qaeda.

He'd be pretty upset.

He'd call reporters over and he'd stick up for his old pals. He'd make a big, visible effort to vouch for their trustworthiness.

He might even go on television two days in a row and accuse the Congress and the American people of racism for making a distinction between a private company in Great Britain and a company owned by an unelected Arab government.

Oh, wait, that's not your imagination. That actually happened.

The worst part for President Bush, if library funding is really what's behind his bizarre reaction, is that now he can't accept the UAE's money even if they'll give it to him. Not unless he keeps the list of donors secret forever.

Watch for that.


Copyright 2006

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