It's tough for me to understand what in the world the W administration was thinking when it cut a deal with the United Arab Emirates company to manage six U.S. ports.

It puts Dubai Ports in charge of major terminal operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

I guess the main question I have is, "Are you nuts?"

That's because so many aspects of this thing seem really bizarre to me.

First of all, the fact that W himself didn't know about it until after the fact is just crazy.

Apparently, the White House acknowledged W was unaware of the pending sale until the deal had been already approved by his administration.

Honestly, it took some 12 departments, including Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury and Commerce to sign off before this deal could be inked, so it's not like it was some huge secret or anything.

But now that it has come to light, W is facing a huge political rebellion in Washington.

CNN's James Carville called it a political pi-ata because politicians on both sides of the aisle are beating it with sticks, so to speak.

The next bizarre development is W's pledge to veto any bill Congress might pass to block the agreement.

That's just crazy.

In the post-9/11 world, W has been beating us over the head with the threat of terror over and over and over.

Now he's advocating - under the threat of veto (which, by the way, would be his first veto ever) - turning over management of six major U.S. ports to an Arab nation.

How can he justify that? How can he rationalize that in his own head?

Then he says he was struck by the fact that people were not concerned about port security when a British company was running the operation, but they felt differently about an Arab company at the helm.

OK, that's just beyond comprehension.

Of course people feel differently about an Arab country. Good grief, W, have you turned CNN on recently? There are Arabs on there cutting Americans' heads off. There are Arabs holding flaming American flags and shouting "Death to America," "America, Great Satan" and other less-than-friendly slogans.

It's a clich - most Arabs aren't terrorists, but most terrorists are Arabs.

How could he not get that?

Then W says this:

'The more people learn about the transaction that has been scrutinized and approved by my government. ... The more they'll be comforted that our ports will be secure.'

Really, here's some more stuff I learned about the transaction.

According to the Associated Press, it seems in approving the purchase, the administration chose not to require Dubai Ports to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil.

If the records were kept here, they'd be subject to orders by U.S. courts.

The deal also didn't require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

I'm, somehow, not yet comforted.

Critics in Congress on both sides of the aisle point out that the company that previously operated the ports is a publicly traded company. (The London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.)

The new outfit is owned by the UAE government.

Comfortable yet?

W says customs and the Coast Guard will still control and inspect the ports. Yeah, but only about 6 percent of the containers are officially inspected.

It's the port workers - hired by the UAE company - who are going to notice anything fishy.

W says the UAE has been a partner in the war on terror.

That's true to a degree, but the UAE also was one of only three nations worldwide that recognized the Taliban.

And according to the 9/11 commission, the UAE was home to two 9/11 hijackers and was a major financial base for al Qaida.

After all the hubbub, Dubai Ports late Thursday agreed to delay the deal while we look into the details.

Our very own U.S. Congressman, Mark Souder, an ardent conservative Republican, said this:

"I support legislation being proposed by the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee that would suspend the port deal for 45 days and allow for congressional approval or rejection of it. While I have strong doubts about the deal and will likely end up opposing it, let's ensure that we have all the facts before a final decision is made."

He adds:

"On such an important security matter, it's simply not enough for the administration to ask us to trust them. Beyond mere assurances, they need to provide Congress with convincing evidence that such a deal would not pose a security risk to the nation."

I don't mean to put words in the Congressman's mouth, but I think what he's really saying there is, "Are you nuts?" [[In-content Ad]]