White House Begins Retreat on Ports Deal

Feb. 23, 2006 -- -- A day that started with Democratic senators on Capitol Hill accusing the White House of ignoring the law in allowing an Arab-owned company to take over operations at U.S. ports without the proper level of review ended with the president's chief political architect subtly throwing up the white flag on a Fox News radio program.

Bush had insisted that the administration had thoroughly vetted the national security implications of the proposed acquisition by Dubai Ports World, a behemoth international cargo company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, of the publicly traded British company P&O Ports, which operates all or part of six U.S. ports.

But this afternoon Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, told the Fox News radio program anchored by Tony Snow that the president is now considering delaying the deal and pointed out that the sale of the company is not yet a done deal in the United Kingdom either.

"There are some hurdles, regulatory hurdles, that this still needs to go through on the British side as well that are going to be concluded next week," Rove said. "There's no requirement that it close immediately after that. But our interest is in making certain the members of Congress have full information about it, and that, we're convinced, will give them a level of comfort with this."

On Tuesday, the president bristled at the bipartisan calls for review of the deal and threatened to veto any legislation that would delay or block the bid. The president has not, in his time in the White House, exercised his veto power.

Democrats and Republicans of all stripes have publicly opposed the deal and complained the White House should have been more upfront in its review. But what does Rove's rollback of what had been a stiff White House posture mean?

If Bush delays the deal for a fuller and more public investigation, it might undercut the unification of lawmakers as disparate as Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Hillary Clinton. D-N.Y., and cut opposition down party lines. If there is no deal between the White House and Republican leaders on the hill, Frist has promised to block the deal legislatively.