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By WILLIAM J. MURRAY

THE TRANSFER OF the opera- tion of six American ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates has become a major controversy, with virtually the entire Congress on one side and the president on the other.

Both Republican House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist have started the process of passing laws to ban the transfer, while the president stands by the decision of the Treasury Department and states that he will veto any law that scuttles the deal giving the operations to the UAE company--despite security concerns within his administration.

Democrat Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer of New York also want the deal blocked, and have accused the president of continually allowing the sale of American assets to questionable Middle Eastern interests.

What is really happening? First: The power struggle at the White House between Dick Cheney's economic conservatives and the George Bush social conservatives is being won by Dick Cheney.

Dick Cheney is a Richard Nixon Republican who honestly believes tax reduction and business growth are far more important than any other issues. His influence continues to grow in this regard in the second term of the administration, but has always been present.

Just a few days before Sept. 11, the White House blocked the passage of a bill that would have economically punished companies that do business with Sudan, because Cheney had convinced the president that no social issue should come before the free marketplace--despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Christians had been murdered by the Sudanese government.

On the day of the jihad attack against us, I was headed to the Hill for a news conference with Sen. Sam Brownback and others to go on the offensive against the White House and to get the Sudan bill passed. The press conference was canceled when four of our aircraft were hijacked and three flown into buildings by Islamists.

Cheney wants business as usual with the Islamic world, despite the fact that our dollars are financing the Islamist war against us.

Secondly, the administration is desperately seeking ways to get money back into the United States that is bleeding out in a one-way direction. We give the Islamic states hundreds of billions of dollars for oil, but we have nothing to sell them to get the money back--except equity in our businesses.