NYT: News Analysis: Big Problem, Dubai Deal or Not

[Pirate Smile]

News Analysis

Big Problem, Dubai Deal or Not

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 —
-snip-
"The management of these ports is the door which you walk through to get to all of these other questions," said Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, who, like Mr. Bush, used cargo ports as the backdrop for some of his speeches about the post-Sept. 11 world in 2004. "It raises a lot of questions about the lobbying, the connections and the terms of the deal, and the security problems the administration has left unaddressed."

It is also convenient for the Democrats, who are able to sound more hawkish on domestic security than President Bush. Mr. Bush finds himself burdened with the more nuanced argument that turning down this deal would send a message to the entire Arab world that it is not to be trusted, no matter how friendly individual countries may have been.

The administration's core problem at the ports, most experts agree, is how long it has taken for the federal government to set and enforce new security standards — and to provide the technology to look inside millions of containers that flow through them.

Only 4 percent or 5 percent of those containers are inspected. There is virtually no standard for how containers are sealed, or for certifying the identities of thousands of drivers who enter and leave the ports to pick them up. If a nuclear weapon is put inside a container — the real fear here — "it will probably happen when some truck driver is paid off to take a long lunch, before he even gets near a terminal," said Mr. Flynn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/politics/23assess.html?hp&ex=1140670800&en=6d1ee61ea35c53a7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Puzzler]

1. A more nuanced argument...

"Mr. Bush finds himself burdened with the more nuanced argument..."


Yep... and for right or wrong, it seems for that for average voter, the more nuanced argument either loses, or gets ignored. As article says, it's usually the Dems that end up with the more "nuancing" side of things.

-P

[Pirate Smile]

2. I know. I love the irony.

[Canuckistanian]

3. I thought shades of grey were for wimps

I thought it was a black and white world, good guys vs. bad guys, with us or against us, etc, etc.

Sucks to be him.

[Strawman]

4. Kerry was always right on this

As was every Democratic candidate. ABC News smuggled uranium through our ports in 2002 and 2003 for chrissakes. Funny how they're finally paying attention now that the story can be dumbed down to Arabs operating the ports.

If Billy Bob Buttspace the oil tycoon from Texas owned the company that ran these ports and put Barney Fife on guard, ABC News could roll the Fat Man and the Little Boy through on a dolley while whistling Dixie and nobody would pay any attention.