I’ve always thought that being president of the United States was probably the hardest job in the world. He has nearly unlimited responsibility and seems to get blamed for just about everything that goes wrong in the country and (it often seems) in the rest of the world, too.

I wonder if there is a provision in the Constitution allowing the president to just quit. I’m not talking about impeachment or resignation because of health problems. What if a president just had all he could take and wanted to take his ball and go home?

I really wouldn’t blame George W. Bush if he became the first U.S. president to say “take this job and shove it.” Murphy’s Law seems to be in full effect with our hapless chief executive.

Just as people were finally getting tired of the vice president’s Elmer Fudd imitation, the president stepped right into another political pothole. And this one seems to be pretty darn deep.

It is so deep, in fact, that Bush has finally achieved his oft-quoted pledge to be a “uniter, not a divider” in Washington. But unfortunately (for him) he has brought Democrats and Republicans together by giving them a common enemy – himself.

No one outside the Bush administration seems to think that his approval of a deal giving control of the day-to-day operations of some of the nation’s major ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was a good idea. Major players from both parties in Congress are tripping over each other to denounce the deal and promise to take action to derail it. Public opinion seems firmly set against it as well.

So how did we get here? In what strange, alternate universe do the Bush people live where it seemed like a good idea to give control of our ports to a country that has been home to a number of terrorists and terrorist sympathizers?

Well, if you reconstruct the chain of events that got us here, it isn’t really that shocking.

The ports in question have long been run by foreign interests. Until recently a British-based corporation was contracted to run them, and that company was recently bought out by the UAE-based Dubai Ports World.

The U.S. government has a friendly relationship with the UAE government and considers it a partner in the war on terror, so it’s not as if we’ve turned over our ports to Iran or North Korea. Furthermore, the Bush people note that Dubai Ports World will not have control over security operations at these ports. The Department of Homeland Security has that responsibility at all major U.S. ports, and that is not going to change.

Taken in context, Bush probably has logic, the law and good business practices on his side. But the opposition to this deal is based on emotion, not logic. The idea that we would hand over so much responsibility for a critical national resource to a company owned by an Islamic republic whose citizens were directly involved in the Sept. 11 tragedy simply doesn’t sit right with many Americans. And when emotion and logic collide, emotion always wins.

Bush isn’t likely to win this fight. The situation simply rubs people the wrong way, and it provides a great opportunity for incumbents in Congress to burnish their patriotic credentials in an election year. The president has given Congress a slow pitch right over the plate – how could they help but take a swing?

I think it may be time for another long vacation at the ranch in Texas, Mr. President. Just remember to tell Dick to leave his shotgun at home.