Dubairony

Obliged to counter public criticism of its Dubai Ports International deal, the White House was denied the use of their most trusted attack of "partisan politics!" due to the number of Republicans leading the complaints.
Nor could the Administration claim its critics were selling out on national security, as that was the crux of the objections.
What then could the propagandists come up with to attack their attackers?

All was revealed when on every single Sunday political show the question was posed that the criticisms of the port deal were based solely on "hysteria" and "bigotry".

Since September 11th the Bush cabal has counted on hysteria with dark claims of potential nuclear and biological attacks, releasing "terror alerts" timed to Bush’s dipping poll numbers and painting those who questioned policies and practices as unpatriotic, whilst Bush’s boosters in the media have never hesitated to label all Arabs "sand-monkeys", "ragheads", "Islamo-fascists" and dissident liberals as cowards and traitors—facts that not one of the Sunday talking heads cared to note.

Having traded exclusively on fear, xenophobia and bigotry to maintain and promote their power and policies, the White House is now being hoisted by its own petard.

The hypocrisy of their argument is so transparent it would appear to be a poor political maneuver; but as long the op-eds and talking heads ignore the irony and hypocrisy the White House argument still works in their favor.

The Administration’s public defense of the arrangement obscures the larger issue that the DBI deal is symbolic of the White House’s modus operandi; ignore the public interest and exploit national assets and government resources to make private deals that benefit only the well-connected few.