Why is Bush Being Crucified by the Right?

This port issue is reminiscent of the Harriet Miers nomination back in November. Back then, our senior contributor wrote that Miers was being scuddled by the Right because Bush had failed to "correctly" address two growing areas of concern among conservatives: the influx of illegal immigrants and uncontrolled Federal spending.

It is deja vu. Surely, the UAE-based multinational corporation is unlikely to do any worse, in terms of port security, than the UK-based firm. The anger from the Right, again, stems from the President's "internationalistic" approach in dealing with issues of business and the economy. Bush has no qualm about using Mexican and other foreign labor to address labor shortage in certain sectors of the U.S. economy. And he similarly has no qualm about using a foreign firm to operate the Eastern ports.

Conservatives, on the other hand, have become increasingly isolationist ever since the NAFTA debate of the early 1990s and, understandably, even more so since 9/11. And they are not amused by Bush's embrace of internationalism...