Main Concern In Congress—Getting Re-elected

Our congressional representatives may say that getting re-elected is important because they need to continue their righteous calling. But it’s a job like any other job. The perks are good and our elected reps think their main job is to keep their job. Right now, the Republicans in Congress are weighing whether White House policies will hurt their re-election chances. Of course the so-called Repub moderates voted in favor of continuing the Patriot Act for four years. Of course they are voting in favor of wiretapping with a puny oversight clause. Why oppose bad legislation when the confrontation may not win votes? But the Dubai deal is a different matter altogether. A Repub person voting in favor of this controversial stinkhole could get booted out of Congress and never know what hit him. WaPo reports this morning (“House Agrees To Vote On Ports, Showdown With President Likely”) that a House vote on the Dubai deal is scheduled for next week. This means White House efforts to avoid legislation against the Dubai deal have failed. But wait. Looky here: “Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) will attach legislation to block the deal today to a must-pass emergency spending bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” WaPo said. How tricky is that! John McCain, the Repub’s great White House hope for 2008 wants the Iraq/Afghanistan wars to go on in perpetuity. But the public has become disillusioned with these wars. How do you kiss the Bush/McCain ass, kick UAE where it hurts and put Repub Congressmen in the winners' circle all at the same time? You attach a bill funding the wars to a bill killing the Dubai deal. Will it work? It is certain that Congress is in no mood to make the kind of compromise that House Homeland Security Chairman Peter T. King (R-NY) is sponsoring. That is, requiring DP World to have a U.S. partner, which would completely control operations at the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami and New Orleans. Congress wants the Dubai deal killed outright. And the Republican Congress also knows that emergency funding for the George Bush/John McCain wars is must-pass legislation. Lewis’s bill will no doubt pass. But the controversy about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will continue to dog Congressmen who are up for re-election. And the Dubai deal controversy will not end any time soon. The tag line on the WaPo article is the most interesting part: “DP World officials suggested yesterday that within days, Peninsular & Oriental's operations will belong to them, no matter what Congress does.” You didn’t think an Arab country was going to pack up its gazillion dollar deal and quietly go home did you?