Snow’s prior post was president/CEO/chairman of a struggling rail-shipping and cruise operator called CSX Corporation, which in 2003 sold its CSX Lines to the Carlyle Group for $300 million. Carlyle, whose pivotal figures include former President George H.W. Bush, then flipped CSX Lines for a handsome profit to Dubai Ports World (DPW). This global management entity is owned by the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich nation linked to the financing of al Qaeda. Dubai International Capital (a government-backed buyout firm) then invested billions in the Carlyle Group.

For his part in these backroom deals, Snow was put in charge of the Treasury Department, where he heads its Committee on Foreign Investment—the federal panel that rubber-stamped the $6.8-billion deal that would have relinquished control of five U.S. seaports to DPW.

To those of us looking in, it appears that W. attempted to sell out America’s port security so he could compensate a terrorist-friendly country for its generosity to Carlyle and Daddy Bush. (It didn’t hurt that Snow would have benefited even if the deal fell through.) Of course, his under-the-table wheeling and dealing comes as no surprise to us.

Some history: In 1982 Snow was arrested in West Valley City, Utah, for drunken driving. He paid a $334 fine, but was never convicted because the prosecuting attorney “voluntarily dismissed” the charge before trial. That was merely the first instance of ethics and the law being bent to Snow’s advantage.

In 1988—right around when he took the helm at CSX—Snow was sued by his ex-wife, Frederica Wheeler, for failing to pay child support. Although the millionaire denied flaking out, the court eventually discovered that over a 19-month period Snow had indeed failed to cover his son Ian’s transportation and allowance costs at college. The deadbeat dad claims the dispute was settled in 1991 “to spare the family the difficulty of a trial.”

Analyzing corporate disclosure documents, the advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice found that for the years 1998, 2000 and 2001—while Snow was CEO and then chairman—CSX paid no federal income taxes, despite recording $1 billion in pretax profits over that period. Instead of being penalized for tax evasion, Snow’s firm was awarded $150 million in federal rebates. (Isn’t the Treasury Department supposed to ensure that taxes are collected? Is this really the kind of guy we want running the place?)

Shady dealings between the cretinous Snow and CSX became commonplace. In 2000 CSX board members cleared the slate of Snow’s outstanding $24-million company loan. Red flags were raised again when Snow sold 120,000 shares of CSX shortly before its stock price plummeted. In the wake of corporate scandals, notably the collapse of Enron, the law has been changed to ban such practices. Perhaps Snow and his pals picked up the slimy tactics back in 1990, when CSX Energy was sold to Enron.

According to press reports, when Dubai Ports World purchased CSX’s international port operations in 2003 for a staggering $1.15 billion, Snow raked in compensation of $72.2 million, including $33.2 million from a special retirement pension. Let’s face it: He’s a greedy scumbag and Bush crony who was appointed despite a rocky past.

While the Dubai port deal now seems to have been thwarted, given the kind of underhanded dealings that have become a trademark, we feel certain that this administration will try to slip it—or something similar—past us in the future. Under the hot glare of public scrutiny, we hope this Snow turns to slush before that happens.