Wondering aloud about NSA and the ports

As expected, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to quash an investigation into the President's warrentless eavesdropping program. Senator Rockefeller summed up the thoughts of most Democrats on the issue:

Emerging from a closed-door session in which Democrats lost two party-line votes, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the vice chairman of the committee, said the outcome pushed the panel "further into irrelevancy" and reflected the influence of the Bush administration.

"The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House," said Rockefeller, who had campaigned for a committee investigation and argued that all members of the panel ought to have full access to information on the program.

Now as I said, this was to be expected - the Republican led Congress has long seemed a rubber stamp for the President. That is until now, with most Republicans attacking President Bush's plan to let a Dubai owned firm take control of a number of the nation's ports.

So my thought was, what if this issue is brought up to give the GOP led Congress an issue to get away from the President on? Will we hear in the upcoming campaigns Republican candidates stating proudly they blocked the President's attempts to sell the ports? Is this there one attempt to stand on their own?

Seriously, can the White House really be that insistent that an issue that most of the country disagrees with is really that important?