After doing some  research, i figured out 2 possible solutions

Solution 1)
Just change the body css to the following
#body { margin: 0; margin: 0 0 0 0; background: url(mygradiantimage.jpg) repeat-x top center #666666;}

The Text is visible and the background doesn't show through in the FCKeditor by placing the "#" symbol in front "body" declaration

Solution 2) do the following
Create a duplicate of the portal.css (don't delete poral.css) and name the file something like FCKeditor.css make sure it has all of the contents that portal.css has. Add the following CSS declaration to the to the top line :
body { margin: 0; margin: 0 0 0 0; background-color:#FFFFFF;}
Then inside the TEXT/HTML editor click the link under the FCKeditor titled "Show Custom Editor Options". Then expand "Editor Area CSS" and apply the FCKeditor.css in the Apply Custom Settings Dropdown. (cloned after the portal.css but with the new body css declaring the background color as white) I would recommend applying this to the portal drop down.

This will also make sure that everytime you edit your text, you will see a white background.
This worked for me.

What do you think?
RT