Lead GOP Opponent To White House Ports Deal Punished

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Lead GOP Opponent To White House Ports Deal Punished... No Plane For Official Iraq Trip

No Iraq Trip for Legislator Who Opposed Deal on Ports

By CARL HULSE
Published: March 4, 2006
WASHINGTON, March 3 — Representative Peter T. King's prominent opposition to a proposal to allow a Dubai company to take over some terminal operations at American ports may have earned him some punishment from the Bush administration: He has been grounded.

Michael Temchine for The New York Times
Representative Peter T. King, in his office on Wednesday.
Mr. King, the New York Republican who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, confirmed Friday that a few days after he first threatened legislation to hold up the port deal, the Pentagon informed him that it could not provide an aircraft for his planned March Congressional delegation to Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

A Feb. 22 e-mail notice to Mr. King's office said the legislative affairs branch of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's office had determined "they do not have any aircraft to support" the official trip to Baghdad and other points. "Please advise if the CODEL will now pursue commercial air," it concluded, referring to the Congressional trip. Mr. King said he did not know if the paucity of aircraft was related to his leading role in the port dispute, but he was suspicious.

"It is very coincidental," said Mr. King, who talked reluctantly when pressed about the canceled trip, which had first been unintentionally disclosed by another lawmaker. Mr. King said that he did not intend to make an issue out of it or allow it to affect his stance in the port dispute.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/politics/04king.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
via:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/03/04/lead-gop-opponent-to-whit_n_16742.html