As if warrantless domestic spying, Hurricane Katrina, Harriet Myers, Jack Abramoff and Scooter Libby haven’t caused enough heartburn and disunity within the GOP, along comes the Dubai port deal.
Indeed, port politics has replaced pork politics on Capitol Hill as a result of President Bush’s embrace of a transaction that would make a state-owned firm in the United Arab Emirates owners of commercial seaport operations in six states of some political consequence. Portgate is the latest in a string of controversies to drive a wedge in the normally disciplined and collegial GOP Congress and White House. Hardly anyone thought it possible, but now the GOP is coming to resemble the disassembled Democratic Party. Yet Republicans, who last week found common ground on a tech legislative package in the House, still have a way to go before they can match the Dems.
The little-known government unit at the center of the port storm is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, housed in the Treasury Department and comprised of a dozen federal agencies to assess potential national security implications of foreign purchases of or investments in American companies. Some now see CFIUS as much a sinner as FEMA.
Remember the last time the secretive CFIUS was in the spotlight in official Washington? It was about six years ago when Deutsche Telekom AG, at that time about 58-percent owned by the German government, sought to buy VoiceStream Wireless Corp. (now T-Mobile USA Inc.). Then Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) threw a fit before and after CFIUS and the Federal Communications Commission approved the acquisition. The FCC ruled the law does not prevent a company more than 25-percent indirectly owned by a foreign government from buying an American wireless carrier if the transaction is deemed to be in the public interest. The FCC said the DT-VoiceStream deal passed that test. Hollings disagreed. The FCC decision established a template of sorts for future foreign takeovers of U.S. telecom carriers. However, there has not been a wireless deal quite like DT-VoiceStream since then.
So then, just how might approval of the Dubai port deal impact future attempts by foreign companies-possibly including some state-owned entities-to buy into the American telecom, media and high-tech sectors? Hard to say. Some might argue with legitimacy this is a case of apples and oranges, given Germany is not the UAE and that these are different, dangerous times. Others insist the outcry over the Dubai ports deal is xenophobia and isolationism gone berserk, a world where liberal Democrats are indistinguishable from hard-core conservatives.
What is clear is there are unintended consequences and cutting caveats associated with the U.S.’ laudable support for democracy and free trade in a globalized world. Sometimes, world events do not stick to the script.
