Does anyone outside of the administration believe selling outsourcing the operation of our ports to the UAE is a good idea? Sure doesn't seem that way. Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Robert Menendez are against it, as are Republican Governors George Pataki and Robert Ehrlich, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Peter King (R_NY), as well as a host of others.

Yet the administration had Michael Chertoff out defending the deal yesterday on the Sunday shows, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales doing the same today in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm not well versed on the potential merits of the deal, but irrespective of whether it might be good policy it is darn sure terrible politics. It's surprising the White House couldn't see this from the beginning, and even more surprising they can't see it now.  It feels a bit like a rerun of the Harriet Miers nomination where the administration dug its heels despite knowing within hours it had made a grave mistake.

The port deal is potentially even more damaging politically to the president because it strikes at one of his few remaining core political assets: the public's perception of Bush as an aggressive fighter of terrorism and staunch defender of America. Earlier today Baltimore Mayor (and Maryland Gubernatorial hopeful) Martin O'Malley said:

"I believe that President's Bush's decision to turn over the operations of any American port is reckless. It is outrageous and it is irresponsible. We are not going to turn over the port of Baltimore to a foreign government. It's not going to happen."

When the American public starts agreeing with a liberal like O'Malley, the President is in big trouble. The port deal is an idea that seems wrong at a gut level, and no amount of talk or persuasion on the part of the White House is likely to change that feeling.

UPDATE: I've edited the title of the post and references within the post to the "sale" of U.S. ports. Bad choice of words. The deal is a contract outsourcing of the management of operations of U.S. ports to DP World. Time has the specifics:

The transaction in question is the $6.8 billion acquisition by Dubai Ports World of the British P&O shipping company, to become the world's third largest port-operator. Among P&O's numerous worldwide operations are contracts to operate port facilities in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. The transaction was approved by the Bush administration after a routine evaluation by the  Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency body that assesses the security implications of foreign acquisitions of major U.S. infrastructure assets. U.S. officials say that both P&O and Dubai Ports World have solid security records.

AJ Strata also has more on the details of the deal and some of the lazy language being thrown around - which included the stuff in my original post.