FINALLY [Ramesh Ponnuru]
The administration has come out against the Akaka bill. In that letter to Sen. Bill Frist, assistant attorney general William Moschella writes, "The Administration strongly opposes passage of S. 147. . . . [T]his bill raises the serious threshold constitutional questions that arise anytime legislation seeks to separate American citizens into race-based classifications. . ."
Posted at 6:41 PM
Who's Who on Hawaii [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
As a followup to this post from earlier...John McCain's office confirms to NRO that he will be voting for cloture but not for the Akaka bill—and also points out that Jon Kyl is doing the same.
And then there were 49 [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Senator Akaka, the raced-based Hawaii bill's sponsor made a big concession on the Senate floor today; in the transcript below, he talks about concerns that have been raised about native Hawaiians seceding if this bill passes. Well, he doesn't rule it out. He only says that it would have to be “negotiated,” that it would have to go through a process, but that it would be within the law. In other words, if this bill is passed, native Hawaiians could return to a monarchy, or some other separate form of government all together.
June 7, 2006 4:54 p.m. Sen. Akaka (D-Hawaii)
And when it was mentioned that I had mentioned that they could secede, the question that was asked of me was whether that could happen. And I pointed out that, that to secede, the Hawaiians would have to take it through this governing entity and that this entity would decide whether they should take this to be negotiated with the state government and then with the federal government.
And let’s say they do decide to secede as an entity. I don’t think the state government with the state laws would agree to that. It has to be negotiated. And let’s say if—and I don’t know it, I know it won’t happen—that the state department, the state of Hawaii agrees to that. It has to go to the federal government. So this is all within the law.
I’ve spoken to those in Hawaii who want to have the—Hawaii to be independent and I’ve told them, hey, you can use the governing entity to discuss it. And this is what I meant. They can bring these to the governing entity and the governing entity will make a decision as to what happens to, uh, to independence or returning to the monarchy. But all of this would be within the law of the United States, as mentioned by my senior, senior Senator. |
