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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, August 18, 2003

EDITORIAL
Ed Case offers sober note on the Akaka bill

A sobering note of reality was delivered last week by U.S. Rep. Ed Case on the fate of the so-called "Akaka" Hawaiian recognition bill.

The measure seeks to offer political recognition to Hawaiians as a way of saving Hawaiian programs threatened by legal challenge as unconstitutionally race-based.

The legislation is poised in both houses of Congress, Case said, but probably will go nowhere unless the Bush administration signals its intentions. His point is that Republicans in both houses are unlikely to support the bill unless they hear that the White House is ready to go along.

Case made an impassioned defense of the legislation, saying it is crucial to improving the economic and social condition of Hawai'i's host culture. And when the lot of Hawaiians is improved, he argued, all of Hawai'i benefits.

There are those who believe that, while Hawaiians may need help, it should not come in a package restricted by race. That viewpoint has gained traction within the federal court system.

Case also threw in a political ringer in his call to arms on the Akaka bill. He noted that Gov. Linda Lingle made a major point of her ability to gain access to Republicans in Washington on this very issue during her successful gubernatorial campaign.

Prospects of success, he said, rest heavily on Lingle's ability to deliver. It is clear that if Hawaiian recognition fails in Washington, the Democrats are not in any way prepared to take the blame alone.