DUMB, DUMBER, DUMBEST. Dumb: Democrats who think voters will ignore all of their votes against tighter security if they oppose the transfer of the management of some operations in six ports to state-owned Dubai Ports World. Dumber: Republicans who immediately hopped on the anti-deal bandwagon for fear of being outflanked on the right by the Democrats. Dumbest: President Bush’s staff, none of whom thought to mention to the president that a company owned by an Arab government was spending $6.8 billion to buy P&O, the venerable Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, established in the year in which Queen Victoria acceded to the throne. The company manages 29 ports around the world, among them facilities in Miami, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Bush, forced to admit that he didn’t know about the deal or its approval until he read about it in the papers, was late engaging his critics. In addition to the usual gaggle of politicians eager to position themselves to the right of the president on national security issues by pandering to public fears about terrorist shipments of nuclear and other materials, he faced opponents genuinely worried about national security. After all, two of the attackers on the World Trade Centre were citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a component state; Dubai is alleged to be home to some of the banks that laundered money for the attackers; and A.Q. Kahn’s nuclear-smuggling network hid behind a Dubai front.