Bush Administration hoist by its own petard

David Brooks in his column in today's New York Times seems to have discovered to his surprise that politicians will demagogue about national security and the public's fear of the foreign.
"This Dubai port deal has unleashed a kind of collective mania we haven't seen in decades. First seized by the radio hatemonger Michael Savage, it's been embraced by reactionaries of left and right, exploited by Empire State panderers, and enabled by a bipartisan horde of politicians who don't have the guts to stand in front of a xenophobic tsunami."
Mr. Brooks seems to have a blind spot about the Bush Administration. He seems completely oblivious that Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert are just continuing to do what the administration has done since 9/11 -- exploit public fears about national security and terrorism for their political advantage.
Since there are terrorists who want to do the US harm in both Britian and Dubai it probably does not make us any more or less safe to have a U.A.E. company running our ports instead of a British one. Stopping this port deal will probably not make us any safer. But, unlike invading Iraq, putting incompentent political hacks in charge of FEMA and many other things the Bush Administration has done since 9/11, it probably does not put us more at risk, either.

The only thing different about the xenophobic, unreasoning fear aroused by the port deal is that the Bush Administration is on the receiving end of its negative effects.

I wonder how if feels.