Boxer’s Rebellion
In a major departure from their usual opinion, the LA Times is excoriating Sen. Boxer for playing politics with free trade.
Here’s a glimpse:
Now there is a Republican in the White House, and of all the grandstanding surrounding the Dubai Ports World deal, none tops Boxer’s performance. She said last week that she would support legislation preventing any foreign firm, state-owned or not, from buying port operators. Memo to Boxer: 13 of the 14 container terminals at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach, the biggest port complex in the U.S., are run by foreign-owned companies. She later told The Times that she meant such deals should get greater scrutiny, not be banned. Still, this is the sort of proposal one would expect from a senator from a land-locked state like Vermont, not one where international trade plays a vital role in the economy. The Clinton-Menendez bill, which Boxer is backing, would do little more than disrupt port operations and attract international protest.
Boxer had a more enlightened view in 1998, when she supported the Cosco move. She now borrows a line from George W. Bush and says the world has changed since 9/11, but that still doesn’t explain why she supported terminal operations run by a foreign government-owned company eight years ago but now distrusts any foreign operator whether it comes from a country involved in terrorism or not.
One possible explanation is that the Cosco deal was heavily backed by a Democratic administration, while the Dubai Ports World deal is heavily backed by a Republican administration. But that would mean Boxer is working against the interests of her state in order to score cheap political points. She would never do such a thing. Would she?
I wasn’t expecting the LA Times to attack Sen. Boxer on anything but it’s a welcome sight. The LA Times obviously knows the importance of free trade on California’s economy. I suspect that they’ll cut Boxer alot of slack if the subject was anything else.
The truth is that Boxer is the ultimate anti. I won’t predict this but I wouldn’t be shocked to find Boxer arguing with the President if he said that the sun rose in the east. As I’ve said before, Sen. Boxer is all about being against everything that the President is for. That’s her right except that she frequently does it without any thought or logic.
The people of California deserve far better than Sen. Boxer. She’s defined the notion of loyal opposition down to simply opposition. The distinction is worth noting. When Democrats controlled the House, Senate and the White House from January, 2003- January, 2005, Republicans opposed alot of legislation but it wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction. It was based on substantive beliefs. You can’t say that about today’s Democrats.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing