Updated
Dubai Ports World is transfering its stake in US terminals to a US company after Congress told President Bush the deal was dead:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — United Arab Emirates-owned DP World said Thursday it would transfer its operations of American ports to a U.S. “entity” after congressional leaders reportedly told President Bush that the firm’s takeover deal was essentially dead on Capitol Hill.
“Because of the strong relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United States and to preserve that relationship … DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity,” Edward H. Bilkey, DP World’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
Read DPW’s statement (PDF).
Update: Mary Katharine Ham is following this as is Michelle Malkin. The Political Pitbull has video of Harry Reid looking very deflated at the idea of this political opportunity disappearing. Ace of Spades is also blogging about the DPW transfer.
Update II: Larry Kudlow at RCP Blog asks if this is a Political Surrender to Protectionism.
Update III: US officials are saying that an unaffiliated US entity will be taking over the DPW stake in the US terminals:
Asked whether the transfer announced by the United Arab Emirates company could result in Dubai Ports World still owning a part of the operation through a joint venture or retaining some amount of control, the official said:
“Our expectation is that the port operations would be in the hands of an unaffiliated U.S. entity,” the official said, on condition of anonymity.
Jay Tea addressed the DPW terminal deal here.
Harry Reid: “Waaa waaaa waaa! I wanna vote on it so I can be on the record showing I’m for something that the American people want. Waaa waaaa waaa!”
I sure hope it’s Haliburton! Wouldn’t that be a hoot.
Door meet nose, the dems take it squarely in the face. A wholy owned US subsidary would work.
I don’t know how many times I’ve read, just today, that this is about Bush. About his presidency. About his mistakes. An indication of his loss of control in DC and abandonment by Republicans.
It’s not about Bush’s reputation.
It’s about AMERICA’S reputation. Our presidents don’t stay around very long, less than most democracies. Eight years at the very most. Sometimes only for four years. And then they are gone. Our reputation does not get a new start each time, it builds. It’s not just Bush who’s going to have a hard time convincing other nations that we will stand by our deals. We have such a pervasive history of failing to keep our word about *anything* and maybe, for better or worse, we could have started to reverse that… and there, again, it would take more than one presidency to do it.
But no… politics are more important. Scoring points is more important.
This isn’t Bush’s fault. He could have done everything wrong and it would still be the responsibility and duty of our representatives in congress and the Senate to look out for the interests of our nation rather than the interests of their ‘O6 re-election bid.
Doesn’t matter if it’s Democrats scoring points with the “security” of our ports, (while blocking land border issues that offend a Mexican-American consituency), or Republicans responding to a deluge of “Arabs want to kill us” mail and phone calls.
At some point “leadership” demands actual *leadership*.
If Bush screws up it doesn’t excuse every other person between him and us from obligations for leadership. Why even bother with those idiots if all they do is follow the polls? Why not just have direct democracy? Then we can all be self-serving without the expensive middle-man. It would be much more efficient.