Dance with the one that brung ya

What we are seeing regarding the port deal (and what had me so amused in my previous post) is a clash between their rhetoric and their reality. The Money Republicans that run the country want the port deal. They want to keep the UAE engaged at an economic level. Those guys our are allies in our attempt at economic conquest of the Middle East.

Unfortunately, these Money Republicans wouldn't run the country based on their desire for free trade and tax breaks for the rich. Nope, they got where they are with some rhetoric that is now coming back to bite them right on their expensive asses.

I'm thinking of Michele Malkin, who believes that under certain circumstances people should be jailed based solely on their (arab) ancestry. I'm thinking of Dick Cheney who scared us with the "mushroom cloud." I'm thinking of Instapundit and Red State folks who put on an air of serious contemplation and pretend to have an "open mind" about whether or not "Islam is a religion of peace." (We don't even need to get into the likes of Vik Rubenfeld and the commentors at LGF, who advocate killing the friends and families of suspected terrorists, perhaps with nuclear weapons.

Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, you got to power by scaring the bejesus out of the American people. Regardless of whether the port deal is a good idea (it might be, but it smells worse and worse by the hour), the trouble you are having selling it to your own party is the result of your own rhetoric. I hope you appreciate the irony--I find it delicious.