When conservative Republicans find more in common with the utterances of Democrats, the Bush White House has a major disconnect. After giving mere lip service to securing our nation's land borders, the administration now opts to leave us vulnerable at our major eastern seaports.

There must be some plausible explanation we've yet to hear. What has been reported is that the major US port operations in Baltimore, Miami, New Orleans, New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia are about to be contracted to an Arab company, Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates. Until it was sold last week, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, a British company has held the contract.

Republicans must be mystified to find themselves in agreement with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Yet her comments on the CBS Sunday program. Face the Nation, made perfect sense. Boxer appropriately stated, "It is ridiculous to say you're taking secret steps to make sure that it's okay for a nation that had ties to 9/11, to take over part of our port operations in many of our largest ports. This has to stop."

The logic of Chief of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, confounds even the most resolute supporter of the administration. Defending security assessments of Dubai Ports World, the company given authorization to take over the port operations, Chertoff said the government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements. The company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns." However, Chertoff refused to disclose details of the agreement, saying such information is “classified.” He spoke instead of the need to maintain a “robust global trading system.”

UAE has been identified as the pivotal financial base for the terrorists who attacked New York’s Twin Towers, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon in Washington, DC., and is acknowledged as a significant transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

In the theatrical production, The King and I, the King of Siam described the things that baffled him as “a puzzlement.” Such an arrangement in a post September 11th world, with terrorist threats emanating from this exact region, is cause for more than simple head shaking. Reckless abandonment of good sense as it relates to America’s national security far exceeds a puzzlement. How do we protect ourselves against infiltration by al-Qaida and their vast network bent on our annihilation when it appears there is scant concern within the Bush White House?

Yet, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during an interview with Arab journalists at the State Department, implausibly stated it was "the considered opinion of the U.S. government that this (deal) can go forward." Rice’s assurances to the group included effectively working with Congress. “Perhaps people will need better explanation and will need to understand some of the process that we have gone through.” she said.

This is the same Secretary Rice who spoke at a dinner marking the end of Ramadan a few months ago. Calling Islam a “Religion of love and peace,” she enthused, “We in America know the benevolence that is at the heart of Islam. We've seen it in many ways.”

Perhaps she overlooked the weeks-long destructive riots of rampaging Muslim youth in Western Europe this past fall or the more recent senseless slaughter and mayhem seen in myriad countries over Danish cartoons. Maybe she inadvertently missed the fact that the September 11, 2001 fanatics who killed nearly 3,000 American civilians were practitioners of this peaceful faith.

Ah, ‘tis a puzzlement.

Speaking with the journalists, Rice contritely added, "I would hope that our friends in Abu Dhabi would not be offended by the fact that in our democracy, we debate these things.” This, to those who openly express vicious loathing for American society and all of western culture.

And, speaking of puzzlements, there are those who preposterously mention Secretary Rice as a presidential hopeful on the 2008 Republican ticket. Are we so sated with political correctness that we hear a snake hissing in the garden and fantasize that it’s the purr of a kitten?

Sen. Robert Melendez (D-NJ), is crafting legislation which would exclude companies with ties to foreign governments from running national port operations. Commenting on Chertoff's statements, Menendez said they clearly showed him that the administration “just does not get it.” Not a lot to quarrel with there.

No doubt many bewildered conservatives find themselves in accord with the King of Siam, as they wonder about the “puzzlement,” while longing to hear President Bush defend the indefensible.