Democrats Are The Party of Security

It's ages ago in blog time, but remember that Dubai Ports World deal? When Democrats were supposedly trying to "get to the right" of Republicans on national security? Even though Democrats have proposed one bill after another to fund real port security?

Well they just did it again:

Moments ago, the House of Representatives narrowly defeated an amendment proposed by Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN) that would have provided $1.25 billion in desperately needed funding for port security and disaster preparedness. The Sabo amendment included:

– $300 million to enable U.S. customs agents to inspect high-risk containers at all 140 overseas ports that ship directly to the United States. Current funding only allows U.S. customs agents to operate at 43 of these ports.

– $400 million to place radiation monitors at all U.S. ports of entry. Currently, less than half of U.S. ports have radiation monitors.

– $300 million to provide backup emergency communications equipment for the Gulf Coast.

Republicans don't give a shit about port security, or really any kind of homeland security. That's the only thing you can take away from these votes. Almost every Republican in the House voted against this bill.

This is exactly the strategy I wanted after the DP World deal went down. I wanted to get the GOP on the record on homeland security. They predictably failed the test. $1.25 billion is less than the daily budget of the Defense Department. It's less than the total expenditure in this year's budget for Star Wars missile defense, the thing they've been working on for 20+ years without success. How could you possibly say homeland security is not worth the price?

These votes should be front-page news. Right now at the top of CNN.com is Operation Swarmer. War porn. Fox News' top story is a school bus flipping in Florida.