REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON DC: Under the watchful eye of Hawaii’s Senior Senator Daniel Inouye, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka spoke several times on the Senate floor this week sharing with his fellow 99 Senators why he is passionate about the controversial legislation he fathered -- the Native Hawaiian Recognition Act S. 147 -- which allows native Hawaiians to set up a separate government in the 50th state and act as one tribe of indigenous people, no matter where they live in the world.

Also known as the Akaka Bill, the legislation ultimately died in the Senate Thursday afternoon after Sen. Akaka initiated a cloture vote. Cloture, which forces 30 hours of debate and a second vote on the final measure, was achievable with 60 votes -- Akaka secured just 56.

Part of the problem was that during the two days of debate, the 81-year-old Akaka recently named one of the 5 worst and most ineffective senators in the nation, often wandered in his speech, losing track of his place in his script, while mumbling and repeating himself. The Senator attempted to backtrack on a highly inflammatory statement he made in a 2005 interview on National Public Radio, during which he admitted the Akaka Bill could lead to Hawaii’s secession from the United States. His 2005 statement, which he unsuccessfully attempted to clarify a couple of days later, sent shockwaves throughout political and media circles across the country.

Trying to reassure Republicans who are concerned with passing legislation that could remove one of the 50 stars from the American Flag, Akaka this Wednesday emphasized he is not in favor of secession. However he got himself in more political hot water when he acknowledged once again that secession or return to a Hawaiian monarchy could occur with this legislation. Unfortunately for Akaka, though he couched his statement with a prediction that such a proposal is not likely to get the approval of the state or federal government, his comments only served to increase concerns rather than appease them.

The debate’s momentum only went downhill from there for proponents of the Akaka Bill. Akaka and even the 81-year-old Inouye were no match in the floor debates on Wednesday and Thursday with Republican conservatives and moderates opposed to the bill. Some of the opponents of the measure are lawyers by profession who composed eloquently crafted speeches and delivered them with flair on the unconstitutionality and dangers of the legislation.

The only advocate who was comprehensive and charismatic was Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, who shared personal insights as a former resident of Hawaii on how the bill will help Hawaii.

Believing he had the votes, Akaka forced the cloture vote, but was sorely disappointed with the 56 to 41 outcome.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka - photo from the Senator's Web site

While Akaka maintained in a subsequent press statement that he will be back this session with another version of the Akaka Bill, Republicans maintain he won’t have that opportunity.

Whether Akaka got the message or not, Republicans sent both Hawaii Senators a strong one with the 41 votes in opposition to the cloture vote. These were votes Republicans organized and worked diligently to secure, despite heavy lobbying from Hawaii’s Republican Gov. Linda Lingle and vote trading by Inouye and Akaka.

The 41 votes let Hawaii’s delegation know that the bill will never pass with this current Senate in place. Especially now that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in May and the U.S. Department of Justice this Wednesday issued strong statements against the Akaka Bill, calling it unconstitutional, divisive and in the case of the Commission, the worst piece of legislation they’d ever reviewed.

Behind the scenes, Republican senior staffers say there were substantially more than 41 Republican members who would vote against the bill if Akaka had somehow eked by the cloture vote.

All Democrat Senators were willing to vote for cloture, but not necessarily for the passage of the final version, according to political staffers.

But Republicans played let’s make a deal with theirs, negotiating up until the very last minute. Organized in caucus beforehand, some Republicans who knew they would kill the cloture vote, cast their ballot in favor of the Akaka Bill because they either served on the Senate Appropriations Committee with Inouye, the co-chair, and wanted to show him the courtesy, or because they’d traded their vote with Inouye in previous sessions. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, one of the biggest opponents of the bill, promised the Hawaii delegation he would not stand in the way of the cloture vote because of a previous deal he made, but he told them if it passed cloture, he’d be their toughest opponent.

Thursday brought to an end 6 years of work by Akaka to get this legislation passed. Political observers noted several fatal mistakes Hawaii’s top elected officials made in their campaign to get the Akaka Bill through.

• They disregarded the public’s lack of support for the measure and concerned themselves only with recruiting endorsements from Hawaii’s top political leaders.
• They authored legislation that would divide rather than unite, the state’s non-Hawaiian and native Hawaiian communities.
• They seriously misjudged the influence that Gov. Linda Lingle has in swaying Republican Senators and President George W. Bush in favor of the Akaka Bill. She failed in this attempt -- a fact brought home when the Bush administration authored a letter issued Wednesday saying the administration is “strongly opposed” to the legislation.
• Gov. Lingle, Senators say, confided that the Akaka Bill would help Republicans politically in Hawaii -- including her own campaign for governor or U.S. Senate in the future. They, for the most part, did not believe her because the legislation was introduced by a Democrat and does not sit well with the Republican or conservative agendas.
• They underestimated their opponents and personally attacked them rather than addressed their statements with convincing arguments and facts.
• They overestimated the power of government over the power of the people.
• They underestimated the negative reaction mainlanders would have once sunshine was put on the true implications of the bill through more than 50 nationally published opeds and stories.
• Rather than grassroots support, they believed the money they spent lobbying for the bill, buying support from conservatives, advertising dollars spent by the millions to buy off media, and public relations campaigns they ran to promote the bill, would manipulate Hawaii residents into believing that the Akaka Bill is the best legislation for Hawaii. A good bill -- and honestly addressing the legal and constitutional problems in the bill -- would have been much cheaper, easier and saved the taxpayers a bundle.
• They believed secrecy in the negotiations of the final language of the bill was more effective than open negotiations. It wasn’t, as the closed-door negotiations only raised suspicions of opponents.

In the end, there were some political surprises.

While Gov. Linda Lingle was able to secure some Republican support -- especially from some of the female Senators who are more liberal -- she lost a vote she said just weeks ago that she secured from Sen. Elizabeth Dole. And Sen. Lindsay Graham, who is one of the original co-sponsors of the bill, did not even show up to vote.

Despite heavy lobbying against the bill by close associates of Sen. John McCain, he voted in favor of the bill.

Two Democrats did not show up to vote including Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and John Rockefeller, D-WV. But even if they had showed, Democrats would not have made the cloture count.

Akaka is putting on a happy face attempting to spin local media reports in his favor.

But as one senior staffer at the Capitol says, the legislation is “deader than dead.” Republicans strongly dispute Akaka’s claim it could resurface this year.

Should Democrats take over the Senate, the House and the president’s seat, Republicans acknowledge the bill could pass in future sessions, but that isn’t likely, particularly if the fading Akaka loses his re-election bid this year to the 53-year-old energetic Democratic Congressman Ed Case who is challenging him in the primary.

Though Case is in favor of the Akaka Bill, and spoke at a rally in favor early Thursday surrounded by Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees, Senator Akaka and others, he is not the godfather of the legislation.

Should Case win, he could in fact introduce his own native Hawaiian rights bill that appeases Republican concerns about constitutionality, land division, different tax structures divided by race, gambling on sovereign lands, eminent domain and secession from the United States. A bill that unites the people of Hawaii, rather than creates divisiveness, unrest and drives a stake in the heart of its people’s Aloha Spirit.

One fact is certain: Hawaii’s elected officials who backed the Akaka Bill legislation, staking their political reputations on it, will have to deal with the fallout this election season. These so called leaders managed to disappoint one faction of the Hawaiian people who wanted the bill passed, while getting a “thumbs down” from the Bush administration, the majority of the Senate and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on legislation so poorly crafted it failed on constitutional grounds and a host of other legal concerns.

Here is the vote:

YEAs for Cloture -- 56

• Akaka (D-HI)
• Baucus (D-MT)
• Bayh (D-IN)
• Biden (D-DE)
• Bingaman (D-NM)
• Boxer (D-CA)
• Byrd (D-WV)
• Cantwell (D-WA)
• Carper (D-DE)
• Clinton (D-NY)
• Cochran (R-MS)
• Coleman (R-MN)
• Collins (R-ME)
• Conrad (D-ND)
• Dayton (D-MN)
• Dodd (D-CT)
• Domenici (R-NM)
• Dorgan (D-ND)
• Durbin (D-IL)
• Feingold (D-WI)
• Feinstein (D-CA)
• Grassley (R-IA)
• Hagel (R-NE)
• Harkin (D-IA)
• Inouye (D-HI)
• Jeffords (I-VT)
• Johnson (D-SD)
• Kennedy (D-MA)
• Kerry (D-MA)
• Kohl (D-WI)
• Kyl (R-AZ)
• Landrieu (D-LA)
• Lautenberg (D-NJ)
• Leahy (D-VT)
• Levin (D-MI)
• Lieberman (D-CT)
• Lincoln (D-AR)
• McCain (R-AZ)
• Menendez (D-NJ)
• Mikulski (D-MD)
• Murkowski (R-AK)
• Murray (D-WA)
• Nelson (D-FL)
• Nelson (D-NE)
• Obama (D-IL)
• Pryor (D-AR)
• Reed (D-RI)
• Reid (D-NV)
• Salazar (D-CO)
• Sarbanes (D-MD)
• Smith (R-OR)
• Snowe (R-ME)
• Specter (R-PA)
• Stabenow (D-MI)
• Stevens (R-AK)
• Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs Against Cloture -- 41

• Alexander (R-TN)
• Allard (R-CO)
• Allen (R-VA)
• Bennett (R-UT)
• Bond (R-MO)
• Brownback (R-KS)
• Bunning (R-KY)
• Burns (R-MT)
• Burr (R-NC)
• Chafee (R-RI)
• Chambliss (R-GA)
• Coburn (R-OK)
• Cornyn (R-TX)
• Craig (R-ID)
• Crapo (R-ID)
• DeMint (R-SC)
• DeWine (R-OH)
• Dole (R-NC)
• Ensign (R-NV)
• Enzi (R-WY)
• Frist (R-TN)
• Gregg (R-NH)
• Hatch (R-UT)
• Hutchison (R-TX)
• Inhofe (R-OK)
• Isakson (R-GA)
• Lott (R-MS)
• Lugar (R-IN)
• Martinez (R-FL)
• McConnell (R-KY)
• Roberts (R-KS)
• Santorum (R-PA)
• Sessions (R-AL)
• Shelby (R-AL)
• Sununu (R-NH)
• Talent (R-MO)
• Thomas (R-WY)
• Thune (R-SD)
• Vitter (R-LA)
• Voinovich (R-OH)
• Warner (R-VA)

Absent and Not Voting -- 3

• Graham (R-SC)
• Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Schumer (D-NY)

Reach Malia Zimmerman, editor and president of Hawaii Reporter, via email at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com

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