Why "Trust Me" Won't Work on the Ports Deal

Jay Homnick's on the money:

In the end it always comes down to the secret stuff. You know, the stuff that Mommy and Daddy know but you don't. They can't tell you, they're sorry to say. They would love to, just that you're not big enough to understand. But trust them. They know all the stuff they need to know to help you and take care of you. So please don't doubt their decision. It's based on all that stuff. Just please, always come to them with your concerns. They would be hurt if you were ever not comfortable to approach them. Their door is always open.

This familiar refrain has been sounded again in Washington. President Bush assures us that the guys we don't know whose job it is to know the stuff that we don't know can certainly be trusted to do their job and check out the Dubai port deal which may look a bit shaky based on the stuff we know but really looks rosy based on the stuff we don't know. Immediately this conjures up images of high-level conferences in the office of the Secretary of Defense. Except that Rumsfeld, when asked, said, "Whuh? First I hear of it." This matter was handled by mid-level bureaucrats at Treasury, about the same attention we would pay to the question of whether Benjamin Franklin should be flying a kite on the twenty-dollar bill.

We bought this appeal when it concerned the NSA wiretapping. It's a secret program for a secret reason, so trust the busy beavers burrowing in the mysterious underground headquarters. They'd love to tell us but then they'd have to kill us. Okay, we said, keep us safe and we won't be too fussy. But now they're trying it in reverse. Let us be less paranoid, they tell us, because we know things you don't know. This time we're raising an eyebrow, some questions and, if necessary, a bit of Cain.

The last time Bush tried the "Trust Me" defense, Harriet Miers went down in flames.