Bush Bans Bras, Improves Support

Down here in the Carolinas the top news isn't President Bush's visit to the UK, it is his decision to slap Chinese textile imports with quotas. Bras, dressing gowns, and knit cloth—presumably made into other unmentionables—will be hit with limits because they cause "market disruptions." In English that means they are too cheap.

The Bush administration gets blasted in textile-producing areas of the South for failing to "do something" about lost jobs and shuttered mills. The quota decree, of course, does not change the underlying economics of the matter. Bans just insert guns and feds between pricetags and consumers.

That is why Bush's bra ban is being called an acceptable "first step" by U.S. textile makers. But like earlier action on imported steel, the White House goal is to shore up political support in key regions, not change the world.