...he was branded "seditious".

What Gore was talking about were student visas held up for unconscionable periods of time because the applicants are Arab students. He also talked about harsh and unequal penalties visited upon Arab nationals who become enmeshed in our Immigration bureaucracy because they are Arabs.

He was "bad" for saying so.

Now the Administration says that we ought not to withhold business from a company because it's owned and run by Arabs.

How is this different, in principle? Both issues concern ethnic discrimination aimed at Arabs. Keeping Arab business from managing US ports because their ethnic group is considered untrustworthy will only feed humiliation and anger among Arabs. Keeping Arab students from studying in the US will deprive them of the opportunity to learn about us from us. Would it be better to let them study with the radical imams?

For those concerned about the ports' security, the US still has control over import/export regulations and the enforcement thereof, and the people who actually do the work on the ground will continue to be Americans. If our people do their jobs carefully, meticulously and completely (are you listening, Sec. Chertoff?), we will not have a problem. Or, at least, if we have a problem, it won't be because an Arab company is managing the day-to-day of the ports.