The website Real Clear Politics has called the appointment of an interim replacement for U.S. Senator Dan Inouye “among the most consequential in the state’s political history.”
And what is this about? When all is said and done, it’s about power.
The power of appointment is held by Governor Abercrombie, but constrained by the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee, which by statute draws up a short list of three nominees for the governor to choose from. After years of being more or less irrelevant to actual political power, the central committee suddenly is in a commanding position.
Keep in mind that Neil was never among the cadre of Inouye acolytes. Neil built his own power base, and initially won election to Congress despite, or perhaps because, he was at odds with the senior senator. Over the years, as Neil continued to establish his own base, the two seem to have come to some accommodation, yielding to a sometimes testy coexistence.
So when a letter from Inouye calling for Colleen Hanabusa’s appointment was delivered by two longtime members of the senator’s inner circle of power brokers, it must have been an interesting moment.
According to the Star-Advertiser:
The letter was hand-delivered to Abercrombie by Walter Dods, former First Hawaiian Bank chairman and chief executive, and Jeffrey Watanabe, a retired attorney and chairman of Hawaiian Electric Industries, two of Inouye’s closest confidants, who are among the state’s most politically powerful business leaders.
I wonder if they came to deal and not simply deliver the message.
After all, some have been talking up the possibility of Hanabusa returning home in 2014 to challenge Abercrombie in his bid for reelection. That doesn’t sound like it would leave him feeling warm & fuzzy towards Hanabusa, unless perhaps the emissaries from the Inouye faction of the party offered up something significant in return. What would that be? A free ride in 2014 perhaps? I’m just speculating, of course, but it would have to be something worthwhile.
I’m sure Neil would prefer appointing someone who would strengthen his more liberal wing of the party, and enhance (or at least not undermine) his own place in the constellation of local power. Having someone he trusts in the Senate would be a big help to his personal political interests and those of those his backers.
In any case, you can be sure there’s lots of wheeling and dealing going behind the scenes this weekend.
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Although I have never been impressed with the man, I am betting it will be Shatz. Abercrombie owes no loyalty to Inouye to respect his choice. Shatz is his boy, not to mention being relatively young. I like Tulsi but I think that she will be judged too young and inexperienced to cut it in the Senate at this stage.
Schatz is NOT Abercrombie’s boy. During the 2010 Governor’s race, Schatz skillfully navigated midway between the Abercrombie and Mufi camps, alienating neither of them. Schatz will be independent from Abercrombie, but cooperative. It would be a closer relationship than that between Abercrombie and Hanabusa.
I agree with you about Tulsi. The reality is, she has no real record of legislative achievement by which to judge her. She spent one year in the state house, undistinguished, except for a couple of homophobic outbursts. Her partial term in the Council produced a law making it easier to confiscate the possessions of homeless people.
She has not yet been sworn into Congress, yet her supporters are making a grab for the Senate seat? She risks being dismissed as all aura and no substance if she doesn’t lower her sights, roll up her sleeves and start producing results. She can get by on good looks and “potential” for only so long. As they say in Missouri, “Show me!”
Or as Bachman Turner Overdrive told us,
“you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Ergo, “show me!”
Here’s an interview with some young local politicians done by KITV almost two years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BifMYi9c1Gg
Which of them do you think are talented? IMHO, at the high end of the spectrum, there is Brian Shatz and Maile Shimabukuru. Any one else, in your opion?
I’d bet on Schatz.
Unlike Hanabusa or Tulsi, his appointment wouldn’t open a seat up for Lingle or Djou. He’s also young enough to build seniority.
Appointing him would also ensure he doesn’t pull a Tom Gill or Jean King and run against Neil.
I am wondering when folks are going to wake up to the reality the Democrat Party in Hawaii has collapsed overnight. Without the ability of Inouye and Akaka to deliver large sums of money to the State, with virtually all sectors of the economy being beholden to the Democrats because of that, the stranglehold over the State will come to an end. I for one welcome to possibility of real political and economic freedom in this State in the first time in my life, even if there is going to be some pain to get to that point.
I bet right now Dodds and Watanabe aren’t sleeping very well at night.
I don’t think the words Republican or Democrat have any significance to those who have real money or power. They finance and play both fiddles. But the end of the Inouye era will definitely create a vacuum and, ultimately, leave many of the wild horses he held in check plotting in back rooms and fighting amongst themselves. Hopefully the unavoidable schism will work to the benefit of economic and political freedoms. But we also should remember that Sen. Inouye’s passing comes at a time when the entire economic foundation is changing and the days of the largesse he brought home are over in more ways than one.
I’m thinking the more politicos that threw their hat in the ring, especially those currently serving in high office, the more the “last wish” was diluted. The implicit message as each name was submitted is for the committe to not pay attention to that request from the grave.
As the details of the release of the letter are considered they further undercut the personal nature of the request and make it an obvious survival strategy by the Senators food chain.
My handicapping:
Hanabusa is too complicated
Tulsi needs to serve her current term (s) and build her experience base
Kiaana needs to win an office, any office, first
Espero and Kim, These are deep waters, you’re far from shore.
Oshiro and Shatz are the two it comes down to…I wonder if they’ll both be on the list of 3?
Of the two I would prefer Blake.
The appearance of power confers a power of its own. When this appearance of power in local politics is suddenly and decisively broken, the effect may be akin to the collapse of the decades-long Bernie Madoff pyramid scheme. It’s not merely that the Emperor had no clothes; it’s that there never really was an emperor in the first place. The Wizard of Oz is being discovered to have been not merely an illusionist but an illusion himself.
There is something most definitely wrong with Ed Case’s political instincts. A politician with common sense and a little shrewdness would have pushed for Gabbard or Hanabusa to get into the Senate in order to open up a slot for themselves in the House. But Case seems to have a self-righteous sense of destiny that clouds his pragmatism. What Case needs is a little bit of career advice regarding his talents in the political sphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYHoI47fw0
The good news about Case’s character flaw is that it made Brian Schatz look good. You will note that when Schatz was up on the stage accepting his appointment from Abercrombie, he hunched over with his head face down with his hands balled in front of himself, the way people are supposed to when confronted by a hostile dog. It’s a very self-consciously humble kind of body language that projects SUBMISSION. It’s all very calculated and very shrewd.
It has my approval.
Someone described Schatz as a nice Jewish boy (NJB). But niceness has different connotations in different cultures. In a small town, it means a neighborly person who is considerate and who does not make waves. But being a ‘nice’ in a Jewish context is different. It means someone who will do anything to make his mother proud. It means being ambitious, shrewd and educated. STUDY, STUDY, STUDY! And no going out on a Friday night with “da boyz” (unless your crew consists of your brother and your wife) and getting in trouble (unless ‘trouble’ means getting in a debate on politics and religion). It means marrying a nice Jewish girl (or, if you are stuck in Hawaii, marrying a nice Korean or Chinese girl).
It has my approval.
I was talking to an Abercrombie supporter and asked him about Schatz. He said, “Oh, yuck. I met him twice. He is so calculating and ambitious.” But he’s not Ed Case. When Schatz talks about the environment, a light bulb goes off; he’s very positive and likable on subjects that he is passionate about. Hanabusa, like Case, does not have this likability.
Tulsi Gabbard likewise benefited from her opposition. Mufi Hannemann is God’s gift to Tulsi Gabbard’s political career. Not so long ago she was placed in the same category as Hannemann by progressives, and she’d probably still be there if she had run against someone like Hirono.
An interesting comparison would be between Inouye’s letter to Abercrombie and Ed Case’s run against Akaka. In both cases, there were good intentions mixed in with a power play. Ed Case expended all his political capital in doing so (and now he is running a deficit of political capital). Likewise, Inouye might have lost much of his reputation among the general population, especially among the young. Also, a lot of the projects he pushed for just did not make any sense to the educated public, and that puts his judgment into question for subsequent generations.