Thomas Kean is a "moderate" Republican - a species believed to have been extinct - that now seems to be once again emerging from the Bu$hCo-induced hibernation of irrelevancy. He was a Governor of New Jersey, and was chairman of the 9/11 Commission that Mr Bush fought so hard to not establish. The 9/11 Commission actually was (almost) even handed in its approach to the tragedy, despite Mr Bush's desire that no inconvenient facts (ie.the truth) slid into public purview.

A report today contains the following tidbits:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration said Friday it won't reconsider its approval for a United Arab Emirates company to take over significant operations at six U.S. ports. The former head of the Sept. 11 commission said the deal "never should have happened."

Opponents, including the agency that runs New York and New Jersey ports, took their case to court, while the company, Dubai Ports World, stepped up efforts to change the minds of congressional critics.

The president's national security adviser said the White House would keep trying to persuade lawmakers - there's more time since the company offered to delay its takeover - but the administration wouldn't reconsider its approval.

"There are questions raised in the Congress, and what this delay allows is for those questions to be addressed on the Hill," Stephen Hadley said. "There's nothing to reopen."

Stephen Hadley, of course, is still looking over his shoulder, expecting to hear from Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about his part in the creation of the fraudulent intelligence that Mr Bush waved around to conflate 9/11, Osama bin Laden, Iraq, and Saddam Hussein.

Mr Hadley seems to feel that, with the waiting period that DPW has so generously allowed, there will be a chance to grab Senators quietly by the arm and (possibly) discuss "rumors" running around Washington regarding that sprightly young intern or that "surprising" financial deal. Just one of the advanatges of claiming you can wiretap ANY American ANY time you want to.

And here's the interesting thing about the beauty of being a "moderate" Republican though. You don't have to drink the Kool-Aid. Most especially if you've been a straight shooter as Mr Kean has. You do your public job properly, pay attention to the legalities, in other words be a relatively honest politician, and you can say things like this:

"It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," Kean said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The quicker the Bush administration can get out of the deal, the better, he said. "There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said.

From our point of view, we don't want foreigners controlling our ports," Kean said. "From their point of view, this is a legitimate company that had a legitimate bid and won, and here are all these congressmen saying all these things about not wanting this company. It looks to them like it's anti-Arab."

"I think this deal is going to be killed," Kean said. "The question is how much damage is this going to do to us before it's killed."

Special thanks to Joe at AMERICAblog for pointing this out.