Any Bookies Taking Bets on the Prez Cave-in?

I’ve sent an e-mail to PaddyPower to see if it’s giving odds on when Bush will cave re the Dubai deal, but I haven’t heard back. I would think there would be interest all over the world in placing bets on the date when the President pulls his clodhoppers out of this latest Bush administration cowpie. The NYT reported this morning that Dubai Ports World had issued a statement saying, "DP World will segregate P & O's U.S. operations while it engages in further consultation with the Bush administration and, as appropriate, Congressional leadership.” In other words, the UAE blinked. Dubai Ports has agreed to own our ports’ management contracts but won’t manage them during a cooling-off period. And Karl Rove blinked. He said that although Dubai Ports would be in the final stages of acquisition next week, "there's no requirement that it close, you know, immediately after that." Like, no requirement that it EVER close, Karl? The Asshole in Chief can save himself a world of embarrassment by suggesting to Dubai Ports World on the QT that it withdraw its offer to buy our ports. That’s what happened last year when Communist China made an offer to purchase Unocal (Union Oil Company of California). China eventually recognized the wisdom of withdrawing its offer. If the decision to walk away from this ill-conceived plan to increase US trade revenues would come from the UAE, it would look a whole lot better for the US. An article about this Dubai deal wound up in the Business section of the LA Times this morning. Which is exactly where it belongs. LA Times writer Evelyn Iritani said, “Unless America takes steps to address the growing tensions between open economic borders and national security, trade experts predict that there will be more of these conflicts, given the emergence of new players from the Middle East and China and the growing internationalization of the U.S. economy. And that could be dangerous for a country that needs roughly $4 billion a day in foreign capital to cover its budget and trade deficits.” And there you have it in a nutshell: The Bush administration is whoring for business deals with an Arab country that supported the 9/11 attackers because the Bush administration is bankrupting the US with a foolish and unnecessary war in Iraq. I am assuming the State Department and every other Department in George W. Bush’s cabinet got an earful from Israel when the President said that treating Dubai as less trustworthy than Britain “sends a disastrous signal to the Middle East”. What about the Prez acting like a pimp for a country that refuses to recognize Israel as a sovereign state? What kind of signal does that send to the Middle East? Yesterday, US trade-watchers suggested a perfect face-saving reason for Dubai Ports World to withdraw from this controversy. The trade wisemen said US policies were beginning to look “anti-Arab”. Whatever. How about March 15th for the date the UAE will decide it doesn’t like the Dubai deal? Beware the Ides of March and all that. Or March 17th? There’s that lovely symbolism about snakes being driven out of the homeland.