Port Security

If nothing else, Democrats should make sure the heat remains turned up on the issue of port security, UAE or no UAE.

In the four-and-a-half years since 9/11, the United States still inspects less than five percent of all cargo containers coming into American seaports. This is nothing less than dereliction of duty on the part of the Republicans who control every branch of American government. Their demonstrated lack of interest in this matter is shameful.

It is a golden opportunity for Democrats in congress who want to see a substantive improvement in port security.

Among other battles playing out are whether the Bush administration is spending enough money on port security and whether it is focusing its energies on the right problems.

Another is whether the White House's case on port security is harmed by the fact that the major player is the Department of Homeland Security, whose failures after Hurricane Katrina will be the centerpiece on Thursday of a White House-directed report on "lessons learned" from the multiple failures in the devastation of New Orleans.

"The management of these ports is the door which you walk through to get to all of these other questions," said Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, who, like Mr. Bush, used cargo ports as the backdrop for some of his speeches about the post-Sept. 11 world in 2004. "It raises a lot of questions about the lobbying, the connections and the terms of the deal, and the security problems the administration has left unaddressed."

It is also convenient for the Democrats, who are able to sound more hawkish on domestic security than President Bush. Mr. Bush finds himself burdened with the more nuanced argument that turning down this deal would send a message to the entire Arab world that it is not to be trusted, no matter how friendly individual countries may have been.

The administration's core problem at the ports, most experts agree, is how long it has taken for the federal government to set and enforce new security standards — and to provide the technology to look inside millions of containers that flow through them.

And, remember, this is not about exploiting Bush's failure on this issue for political advantage. It is about working to ensure the security of the American people.

We are waiting for you to lead, Democrats.

Lead!