The Rise of the Phoenix

The March 10 blog essay in The Hill, a Washington-based newspaper focusing on Congress, written by former nonvoting delegate Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS) requesting Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologize for his country’s use of “comfort women” in World War II is reminiscent of the famous bathtub scene in the movie Fatal Attraction, in which Glenn Close’s character simply will not stay dead after Michael Douglas’s character presumably has drowned her.

Faleomavaega was soundly beaten in last November’s election, he has health problems (diabetes, heart and kidney disease) from which he simply will not recover, he reportedly has moved from his Washington area residence to Utah, where his wife has lived apart from him for many years and he has not returned to American Samoa—at least not that we have seen—since his departure shortly after the election.   So one might have been forgiven to have been surprised to have seen him reinsert himself into the national scene on one of his pet issues.  While the essay might have been buried domestically in the avalanche of news emanating from Washington, it did not go unnoticed by the Communist Chinese, who quickly picked it up and ran it in the Global Times, the English-language version of Xinhua.

Giving further credence to speculation that he plans also to reinsert himself into the American Samoa political scene, also this week there was a full-page ad in Samoa News quoting passages from his 1995 memoir, Navigating the Future.   There was no tag line indicating who paid for the ad but who else could it have been but Eni or his campaign committee?  Checking Federal Election Commission records, there are three active campaign committees for 2016, including one for Faleomavaega.  If his committee paid for it, the expenditure will not be reflected until the filing of the next required quarterly report next month.

His defeat was so decisive, the ABCDEF Group was prepared to close down this blog the day after the election and disband.  But we held off when we saw photos and news stories about how he joined the winning candidate in the traditional, day-after-election, roadside thank-you wave.  Public comments on the gesture were uniformly positive with people expressing pleasure at how these two long time rivals had so quickly healed any lingering wounds.

However, we were not so positive.  Knowing Faleomavaega and his need for the spotlight, he surmised that he realized the spotlight now was no longer on him so he moved across the street to join her so he could be under it again.  It worked because it was published widely in the media and in on-line social networks.  Frankly, we thought it was magnanimous of the winner to let him share her stage since she had run against him repeatedly over the past 20 years while he had repeatedly denigrated her.  However, once the post-election spotlight was turned off, with Faleomavaega wishing the victor well and promising to help her as much as possible in the transition, the ABCDEF Group was ready to fold our tent.

Not so fast.  Before boarding his plane Friday after the election he already was qualifying his support for his successor, saying it would depend on where she stood on the issues since there were major philosophical differences between the parties to which they belong. Without specifying how we would get involved in the future, he also told the media that he was not finished with Samoan politics.  But that was the last noise he made until his op-ed blog essay this week in The Hill and his full page ad in both English and Samoan which concluded “to be continued.”  For our part, we decided to let it go and assume a "wait and watch" posture.

 However, if his reentry onto the public stage so far were any indication, he does not seem to have learned any lessons by his defeat other than his belief that questions about his health played a major role in his demise.  Despite all the problems American Samoa faces that need federal attention, his energies still are focused on foreign affairs.  His final substantive appearance on the House Floor dealt with a resolution not on American Samoa but on the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea.  His essay in The Hill dealt with Japan.  His full page ad had to do with Micronesia.   All worthy issues, no doubt, but not very high on the list of priorities of the voters in this territory.  

Saddest of all for him and for American Samoa, with all his frenetic energy he really did not make a difference.   Lots of great photos on his ego walls in his office that can be seen from pictures of his farewell party posted on his Facebook page but that is about it.  No signal achievements for American Samoa or anywhere else in his 26 years of trying.  Even in his latest pet project: the election of the new prime minister of India, he has been eclipsed by the other Samoan in the House, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) whose Hindu faith already has made her a favorite in New Delhi.  Pitiful, just pitiful.

 Moreover, his final House Floor appearance was punctuated with the traditional Hawaiian farewell “aloha” rather than the Samoan “tofa,” reflecting the fact that he spent his formative years growing up in Hawaii, not American Samoa, and underscoring yet another of his pet issues: social justice for Native Hawaiians.   He has not made a difference there, either.

So, unlike Michael Douglas, who turned his back when he was certain Glenn Close was dead, the ABCDEFG blog will remain online albeit dormant just in case, like Douglas's movie wife, we need to put a final bullet in the political corpse by reminding voters of all the reasons why this man needs to remain out of public office. 

That having been said, we are under no illusions that the many blog entries we have posted here over the years turned a single voter against him (although it should have) or in any way cost him the election.  Our disagreement with him always has been about his priorities.   Although we have expressed no opinion, he may well be right about Japanese comfort women, Cambodian debt relief,  the name of the Washington Redskins, nuclear clean up in Central Asia, French nuclear testing, land disputes in Rapanui, Hawaiian and West Papuan sovereignty and all the other issues to which he has devoted his time over the years—excessively we believe. 

He never hid from the voters his passion for foreign affairs and he should be commended for that.  They renewed his mandate every two years for a quarter century.  We do agree with him that his health cost him the election or he would have won again.  In our final pre-election blog, we stated that he would have to be considered the odds on favorite to be reelected, so his defeat came as much of a surprise to us as it did to him.  He also lost because he took the voters for granted by not telling them what his health situation was for nearly a year, not returning home to campaign until three weeks before the election (with no valid reason for staying away) then skipping the big candidate debate.  Health and arrogance cost him his seat and there is no indication in his reemergence that he has learned anything from it.

He won repeatedly not because of his positions on foreign affairs issues. He won because he had a large family base in the Leone area, where the original Englishman Matthew Hunkin settled, married a Samoan girl 177 years ago and over the ensuing 43 years raised four sons (John, Alfred, George and William) and three daughters (Ann, Mary and Jane). Faleomavaega, whose birth name was Eni F. Hunkin, Jr. is one of Matthew’s countless descendents still in the area who for years provided him with a rock solid family voter base.  Coupled with the unwavering support of the large population of his fellow Mormon co-religionists, he was unbeatable at the polls.

He also won through fear: fear that his defeat would reduce sharply the federal funds that flow to the territory.  He played heavily on the belief that his party was the party that was better able to ensure federal grants and that his friendship with the powerful Hawaii senators, Daniel Akaka (D) and especially Daniel Inouye (D) as well as being, along with the powerful California Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D) and George Miller (D), the protégés of the late Rep. Phillip Burton (D)  (who features prominently in the Samoa News ad), were essential to keeping the grants coming.

He actually might have won because of all these factors if he had not been too clever a decade ago in getting the federal law changed to do away with the majority vote for his office.  Since 2004, he has needed only a plurality to win re-election, eliminating the need for runoffs between the two candidates receiving the most votes.  The change was made without any local input from local political leaders and thereafter was derisively labeled the “Eni Hunkin Perpetual Reelection Act.”  The change served him well until last November. 

Had the runoff rule remained in effect, he very well might have beaten his main opponent once the former governor and seven minor candidates were swept away in a first round of voting.  But in the final analysis he was hoist with his own petard and it served him right.  Revenge is a dish best served cold. 

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End note:  If this man were to try to make a comeback, we would be reminding voters all the reasons he should not be permitted but if he does not, this blog will remain dormant.  So, just in case we do not come back, we would be remiss by not commenting on coverage of Faleomavaega by Samoa News and Radio 93KHJ-FM, the major news outlets for the territory.   We felt that they showed bias toward Faleomavaega over the years by not adequately exposing his excessive travel, inattention to local issues, long absences from the territory, lack of information from his office and in the final year, inadequate coverage of his deteriorating health, especially with the use of misleading photos showing him in excellent health. 

In the final analysis we now believe more than anything else it was a question of lack of resources to get at the truth that hampered local news coverage.  When Eni did return, Samoa News had a photographer at the airport and published a photo the next day showing the gaunt delegate hobbling through the terminal with a cast on his foot and a portable dialysis bag hanging from his shoulder.  That picture was worth a thousand words and KHJ-FM also used contemporary, unflattering photos on its companion talanei.com website.  The photos more than made up for the previous poor coverage.  KHJ also took the extra step of engaging a Washington correspondent to keep better tabs on Eni.

We do not know much about the abilities of the woman who is replacing him in the House but through the local media she does appear at least to be keeping the public better informed than he did of her activities in Washington.  If Eni does attempt a comeback, he probably will be forced to change his approach to public information.   If he does not, we will be here to fill in the gaps.

Hall of Famer Ditka Labels Faleomavaega an “Idiot”

Although he did not specifically mention Faleomavaega by name, it is clear that Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach Mike Ditka, now a broadcaster, was including the American Samoa delegate among those he had in mind when he dismissed the drive to get the Redskins owner to change the name of the team.  Faleomavaega has been in the forefront of those in Congress who want to force the team to adopt a new nickname because, he argues, the current name is a slur on Native Americans.

This has long been a cause for the delegate who in July, 2013 before his debilitating illness, decked out in his best Indian string tie (the only kind of tie he has worn for years, now—when he wears a tie at all), delivered an emotional speech on the Floor of the House on the subject with his voice quivering and cracking as he spoke.  He also cosponsored a bill that would cancel the team’s federal trademarks but it has gone nowhere.

Faleomavaega was prompted to speak in part to respond to conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who had said earlier in July that the team’s name isn’t a government issue. Limbaugh said if fans were offended by the name, they wouldn’t go to FedEx Field, but because they do, “it obviously isn’t upsetting too many people.”

When he emerged from seclusion this past March to receive his first office visitor, the ASG director of Homeland Security, he said that, while continuing his rehabilitation, he would be concentrating his efforts on American Samoa issues, like establishment of a National Guard unit in the territory.  Yet, in late May, making his first appearance on the Floor for a five-minute substantive speech (he appeared briefly in April to acknowledge American Samoa Flag Day), he again chose the Redskins’ name as his subject, not the National Guard or any other American Samoa issue.

Now, as the NFL is in the midst of its preseason exhibition game schedule, the spotlight has returned to this issue and Ditka was asked about it during a recent interview.

“What’s all the stink . . . ,” asked Ditka?  “It’s so much [expletive] it’s incredible . . .  This is so stupid it’s appalling  . . . We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world . . . “It’s all the political[ly] correct idiots in America, that’s all it is,” he continued.  “It’s got nothing to do with anything else. We’re going to change something because we can.”  Faleomavaega was a founding member of the ultra-liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus, although he since has left the group.

While team owner Dan Snyder says he will never change the name (and vigorous at age 49, he most likely will outlive the very sick 70-year-old Faleomavaega), there is no question that public sentiment to have him do so has picked up steam.  There is no doubt that were Congress in session, Faleomavaega once again would have been prompted to take to the Floor, perhaps even to call upon ESPN to suspend Ditka from his broadcast duties. 

This blog takes no position on the Redskins’ name but, given his limited strength and energy, wouldn’t Faleomavaega better serve his constituency by concentrating on American Samoa issues, as he promised he would?  If he must take to the Floor when Congress returns in September, how about an emotional speech on the poverty his island may face if President Obama goes ahead with his plan to create a huge Pacific conservation zone that could force the underpinning of American Samoa’s economy to collapse?

Redskins’ name, Kazakhstan nuclear waste, Cambodian debt relief, Korean comfort women, Bahraini protesters, Hawaiian sovereignty, Easter Island land tenure, West Papua Independence, Armenian genocide.  These are the kinds of issues that have dominated Faleomavaega’s agenda over the years when he hasn’t been traveling.  But, no, Coach Ditka, we wouldn’t describe Faleomavaega as an idiot.  However, we would be harder pressed to refute those who might dismiss him as a buffoon. 

Faleomavaega Still Finds Ways to Travel

When the Democrats took over Congress in 2007, it meant at long last Del. Faleomavaega (D-AS) would find himself in the majority with enough seniority to be given a subcommittee to chair.  Not that he lacked the means to travel earlier in his career (how many Members do you think have visited Thursday Island in the Torres Straits once, let alone twice?), but as various waves of reform have swept over Congress in the past quarter century—especially in the wake of the Abramoff scandals, the rules have been drawn tighter and tighter around the travel process.

But giving Eni a gavel meant giving him a budget, and that was like sending a child into a candy store with a couple of bucks to spend.  To make his travel life even sweeter, House Democrats even tacked onto his portfolio “Global Environment,” which gave him license to travel anywhere his heart desired.  So, when there was unrest over land rights in Rapanui, an integral part of Chile, thus not under the jurisdiction of the foreign affairs committee, there was no question in our mind that the roving delegate would find a rationale to make his way there anyway—and he sure did.  One place he did not go, however, was Copenhagen for a U.N. conference on climate change.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a planeload of House members but somehow the chairman of the subcommittee overseeing “Global Environment” got left off the manifest.

But we digress.  The National Journal magazine has published an article titled “How Lobbyists Still Fly Through Loopholes” and it should not surprise anyone that our South Pacific flyboy is among the Members of Congress featured.  Says the Journal: "It's widely believed that the 2007 rewrite of congressional travel rules spurred by the scandal that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison banned such international dalliances. But that's far, far from true. A National Journal investigation has found that despite efforts to clip the wings of congressional travel planned and paid for by special interests, lawmakers are again taking flight. Indeed, the reality is that lobbyists who can't legally buy a lawmaker a sandwich can still escort members on trips all around the world.”

NJ outlines the various ways lobbyists get around the rules and focused on a trip to Taiwan in 2012 as one example.  On their travel reports, two Democrats each listed Fu Jen Catholic University as the sole sponsor of their $27,000 week long journeys.  What's more, the itinerary said that Faleomavaega joined Reps. Boren and Ross for large chunks of the trip. But Fu Jen didn't pay for Faleomavaega's free trip the Taiwanese government arranged it through the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act (MECEA) program.

The 1961 MECEA law allows foreign governments to shuttle members of Congress and their staffs abroad if the State Department has approved the destination nations for "cultural exchange" trips. About 60 countries have such clearances. Despite the 2007 post-Abramoff travel law, lobbyists are still able to plan and attend these MECEA journeys.

“How did trips planned and paid for by a private university so seamlessly mesh with one planned and paid for by the government,” asks the Journal?  “Fu Jen and the Taiwanese government wouldn't say. They declined to answer specific questions.”  

Readers of this blog will remember our April 3, 2012 post which covered a report in the ProPublica investigative news service, which focuses on ethics in government.  They reported that Faleomavaega traveled to Bahrain under MECEA funding at the behest of a friend who was a Bahrain lobbyist.  We speculated that the exposé could hurt him in his bid for the full committee ranking member slot and ultimately he was passed over for the position, even though eventually he did throw his lobbyist friend under the bus to try to save himself by reversing his position on Bahrain.

So it is no surprise that Faleomavaega was able to maintain his brutal travel schedule when he sank back into the minority in 2011 and "Global Environment” was eliminated from the Asia-Pacific subcommittee, to which he returned as (and remains) Ranking Minority Member.  Considering he, himself, spoke of his poor health during his 2012 re-election campaign, almost boastfully acknowledging having had knee, heart and eye surgery, as well as being diabetic, having high blood pressure and other ailments, including being obese, it then came as no surprise either that it was during travel that he suffered what appears to be a stroke in October.  He still has refused to confirm his medical condition but his office has not refuted it was a stroke. 

Ironically, it was on one of his rare trips back to American Samoa that he fell ill and had to be medivaced back to the states.  He can be thankful it did not happen on Thursday Island, Rapanui, Kazakhstan, Mururoa Atoll, the jungles of West Papua or any of the other exotic haunts he frequents.  MECEA or not, the only flying he seems likely to do doing at any time soon will be from Utah to Washington, DC.  Whether lobbyists can come up with a creative way to cart around the world a delegate who now adds stroke to his list of ailments remains to be seen.

Obama Ignores Faleomavaega

Prior to President Obama's recent trip to Chile, Faleomavaega made a fervent public plea for him to put Rapa Nui on his agenda with the Chilean president.  Joined by lame duck Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), who will retire at the 2012 election apparently without his Hawaiian Sovereignty bill (Akaka bill) enacted, Faleomavaega wrote an opinion piece for the Honolulu Star Advertiser that called on the U.S. to take the lead in protecting human rights on Chile's island province in the Pacific. 

As has been the case in virtually ever cause he has ever undertaken in Congress, his pleas went unheard, as Obama declined to raise the issue in Santiago.  Perhaps Faleomavaega suspected that would be the case but did not worry about taking another blow to his prestige, knowing his sister-in-law, an editor at his home town daily paper, Samoa News, would bury the story and preserve his ability to fool his consituents.  It may have been a pretext for him going to Rapa Nui himself, as we predicted he would.

Anyone who thought Faleomavaega's travel wings would be clipped in this Congress, now that he has been stripped of his subcommittee chairman, has been sadly mistaken.  The first quarter of 2012 has just come to a close and already he has been on a congressional junket to Australia and New Zealand,  stopping in Pago Pago each way just long enough to get fuel and give the people his middle finger and Rapa Nui and has announced he will be going to Korea.  Even with Republicans in charge and tight congressional budgets, he has found the money to keep on traveling.

What makes this visit to Rapa Nui so absurd is that he has absolutely no power or authority to do anything about the situation.  What makes it sad is that while he was in Rapa Nui, the new president of SgtarKist was making his first visit to American Samoa.  This was precisely the time Faleomavaega needed to be home to sit in on the  meeting between the new head of StarKist and the governor to plot a course to keep the cannery in the territory.

And of course, his fans just keep cheering him on.  Atta boy, Eni.  We have just one plea to Eni: any issue you really care about, please keep it to yourself.  Once you get involved, it ia guaranteed you will be on the losing side.

Faleomavaega Takes On New Cause: Rapa Nui

Stripped of his floor vote, stripped of his committee chairmanship and reduced in personal office budget, Faleomavaega has to be more clever than ever this year to keep up his frenetic pace of travel and he already may have found a way.  Congress always has set aside funds for Members to return home during recesses to connect with their constituencies.  Faleomavaega rarely has gone home during these recesses over the years, preferring instead to use the time to travel abroad on a series of adventures.

But last week, to the surprise of many, he showed up in Pago Pago.  The local leaders must have been stunned.  And he also signaled what may be his next big cause: Rapa Nui landowners.   To give him some cover, he had Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka (D), himself a native Polynesian, cosign a letter to the President of Chile expressing concern over current unrest of Rapa Nui natives over land issues.

So, while we are unsure how he will find the funding, as a minority party non-voting delegate to the House, to go to Rapa Nui, we do expect any day to read about him being on the island locking his arms in solidarity with the native people.

Bet on it.  Take it to the bank.