DP World - A longer walk back?

The news angle of the Dubai Ports World story turned back on Wednesday toward the administration's contention that the president did not know anything about the deal until after the scandal erupted. White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett introduced that notion on Monday. Bartlett's remark sounded like the foundation of Bush's walk-back from the deal. It seemed likely that the president's ignorance of the arrangement would be used to justify pulling it back for further review, during which it would die a quiet death.

On Tuesday, however, Bush declared that, in his judgment, the deal should go forward. This seemed to render inoperative the "I didn't know about it" excuse, and it signaled that there would be no retreat at all on the part of the administration.

Then, during Wednesday's White House press briefing Scott McLellan reintroduced the idea that Bush knew nothing of the deal until the entire political universe started screaming about it.

President Bush wasn't aware of the sale of six U.S. ports to an Arab company until after federal approval was granted and congressional opposition erupted over the deal, his spokesman said today.

"This didn't rise to the presidential level," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters at the daily briefing.

McClellan said Bush became aware only in the "last several days" of the controversial $6.8 billion sale of Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., commonly known as P & O, to DP World, a state-owned company in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

He said that after he found out, Bush checked with his cabinet secretaries to see if there were concerns. "Each and every one expressed that they were comfortable with this transaction going forward," McClellan said.

It would be politically awkward to say the least for Bush to back out now after Tuesday's infamous threat to veto any legislation cancelling the DP World deal. However, the administration might be realizing that the embarrassment would preferable to the wholesale slaughter of GOP candidates in the November elections. It is a longer walk back, to be sure, but it would get the administration closer to the home and hearth of its currently apoplectic political base.