Posted on: Sunday, April 17, 2005

ISLAND VOICES

By Robert M. Rees

If Yankee Stadium in the Bronx is the "House that Ruth Built," then Hawai'i is the island economy hammered together by U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye. From H-3 to a super-computer on Maui to the possibility of basing an aircraft carrier in Hawai'i next year, his fingerprints are everywhere.

Those who attended Inouye's recent briefing about the Akaka bill to the state Senate and House committees on Hawaiian affairs were reminded again what a towering presence he is.

Unfortunately, like all legendary figures who achieve the status of indispensability, Inouye comes with a built-in problem: Who can take his place? After all, he will be closer to 90 years old than 80 when his current term expires in 2010.

Some anticipate that Hawai'i's junior U.S. senator, Daniel Akaka, will fill any void left by Inouye. But Akaka is only four days younger than the senior senator. In addition, whereas Inouye has accumulated 42 years of seniority, the third highest in the U.S. Senate and close to the leading 46 years of Sen. Robert Byrd, Akaka, with only 15 years, is a relative newcomer. Akaka's current term expires in 2006, but he has already told no less than 12 honorary chairs of his campaign for re-election that he will definitely run again and will remain a senator for as long as he can.

When Inouye does depart the U.S. Senate, even if Akaka is still in place, Inouye's shoes will be hard to fill. No doubt part of what makes Inouye so special is that he fought so courageously for democracy during World War II and then struggled so heroically to implement it during Hawai'i's Democratic Revolution. Perhaps as a result, Inouye for all these years has not forsaken Hawai'i's inherent liberalism and sense of fairness. His contributions to the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 and later to the Senate Select Committee on Iran-Contra are talked about still.

It is true that Inouye has suffered what some consider lapses. Among these was his defense of the Keating Five. Even though the Ethics Committee of the U.S. Senate noted in 1991 that all five senators had acted improperly, Inouye's more sympathetic assessment was that senators Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn, John McCain and Donald Riegle had been following normal practice in lobbying a regulatory agency to go easy on the regulatee that contributed to their campaigns.

Inouye recently suffered what many see as another serious lapse. On March 16, he and Akaka joined 48 Republicans and only one other Democrat in the 51-49 vote supporting President Bush's plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. Some saw this support of Bush's environmental policies as more horse-trading with Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, Inouye's close friend, supporter and colleague. In an op-ed piece of April 3 in The Honolulu Advertiser, Inouye maintained he voted in support of the voice of the indigenous people in Alaska, and it is unfortunate some "suggest that my vote was somehow part of a 'deal.' "

In fact, Inouye's lapses can be understood not as one-shot deals but as classic examples of shrewd and continuing reciprocity, one of the very traits that make him so powerful. After all, Stevens — and even McCain of the Keating Five — have of late helped along the Akaka bill, the pending legislation that purports to put Native Hawaiians on the road to self-determination. When Stevens visited Hawai'i to attend a function honoring Inouye, the Republican went out of his way to admonish an embarrassed Gov. Linda Lingle not to overplay her Republican cards in Washington. "If you want something done in Washington," warned Stevens, "take it through Dan."

To whom can we turn?

There are nearly endless possibilities for what might happen as we prepare for the day when we can no longer "take it through Dan." One of those is that Lingle may resign as governor to run for Akaka's seat in the U.S. Senate when her term and his term expire in 2006. Lingle reportedly has engaged an exploratory committee to evaluate her chances, and certainly the Republican National Committee is encouraging her to run.

The maneuver would allow Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona to carry the Republican banner in the 2006 gubernatorial election and generate a competitive Democratic primary that would help Aiona.

If Lingle doesn't resign to run for the U.S. Senate and is re-elected governor in 2006, her role with regard to the U.S. Senate between now and when her term expires will be confined to appointing a temporary replacement should Inouye or Akaka step down before their terms expire. One restriction on Lingle is that she will have to select a Democrat, and it's interesting to speculate on who that might be. Some think that Lingle might select Rep. Ed Case because he's not so much a Democrat as a centrist and because this would make room for a special election to replace Case in the House. In at least some ways, the Republicans would get two bites of the apple.

The possible need for a gubernatorial appointment aside, there is no lack of aspirants to replace Inouye or Akaka should they retire at the ends of their regular terms.

Taking those pretenders alphabetically, each offers distinct benefits:

• Neil Abercrombie. Abercrombie commands the loyalty of Democratic traditionalists who see him as the scrappy defender of underdogs and labor. On the other hand, some are concerned that Abercrombie exhibits an unwelcome capriciousness.

In fact, Abercrombie began his career in Congress with a flip-flop. In 1986, he won a special election to replace Rep. Cec Heftel in the U.S. House of Representatives. Because he lost the regular Democratic primary, he served only from Sept 20, 1986, to Jan. 3, 1987. Just five days after he arrived, and after having promised voters he would oppose H-3, Abercrombie cast the deciding vote in the 201-200 House vote to pass Inouye's Senate exemption allowing the H-3 to proceed.

Abercrombie would bring to the U.S. Senate a temperament that may or may not be effective but that would certainly be different. Abercrombie himself may have summed up what he offers for Hawai'i when on March 31, following Inouye's briefing to the state Legislature on the Akaka bill, he said, "Senator Inouye engages in a stately and decorous procedure. ... (We in the House) are more of a scrum."

• Ed Case. Case offers two distinct characteristics. First, he is a moderate Democrat who has made centrism a virtue. Second, even though he is serving only his second term in the U.S. House after having won a special election on Nov. 30, 2000, to take Patsy Mink's vacant seat, Case knows how to use the tools of his office to court the constituents and centrism he espouses. More than any other member of Hawai'i's delegation, Case is in touch.

Case's inclination to run for the center is a two-edged sword. When he served in the state Legislature, the Democratic majority in the House ostracized him from leadership for not adhering to the party line. This same majority, by the way, has since unsuccessfully pleaded with Case to come home to run for governor against Lingle in 2006.

• Walter Dods. Retired banker Dods may be best qualified to represent Hawai'i in the U.S. Senate. We know, for example, that New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine, the former co-CEO and co-chair of Goldman Sachs, has fit right into the Senate. Dods brings the same credentials — self-made, intelligent, well-connected and wealthy — that command the respect of other senators.

It is true that Dods, unable to persuade his wife that it would be a good idea, reluctantly declined to run for governor of Hawai'i. Running for the U.S. Senate, however, might be a different ballgame to her and to him. The Senate, after all, is sometimes referred to as "the world's most exclusive club."

• Linda Lingle. If Lingle does run for the U.S. Senate in 2006, and even should she win that election, Hawai'i's problem of how to replace Inouye will be intact. So far, Lingle's primary characteristic as a candidate for the U.S. Senate is that she is a Republican. However, Lingle still has time to compile a gubernatorial record of substance.

• Unlikely longshots. We can expect a crowd when one of our incumbents makes room for one more. No doubt watching all these developments are former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, both somewhat discredited by events and performance in their runs for governor.

Then there is Mufi Hannemann, the Honolulu mayor who has yet to encounter an election he didn't think worth exploring as a possible candidate for either party.

Another who will be tempted is former Gov. John Waihee. Anyone who has ever witnessed Waihee at work in Washington, D.C., such as when he worked as a lobbyist for Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson Hand on behalf of lesser IRS penalties for Bishop Estate, does not doubt that Waihee's persuasive charm would make him a powerful force. However, the recent news about a possible bank foreclosure on his home hasn't helped Waihee jettison his reputation as a profligate governor, a reputation reflected in his poor showings in recent polls taken when he considered running for Mink's vacant seat in the House.

Robert M. Rees is moderator of 'Olelo Community Television's "Counterpoint" and Hawai'i Public Radio's "Talk of the Islands." He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.