Faleomavaega's Summer Travels

July and August can be dreadful months in Washington, weather-wise, so it is no wonder people are eager to leave the Nation's Capital, even those who are in Congress and Congress is in session. Of course, Congress was in recess over the Independence Day holiday, so finding Faleomavaega back home was not especially unusual, since it is an election year, after all. He returned to Washington but soon was home again because, even though Congress again was in session, it was no surprise to find Eni on hand for the opening of the Pacific Arts Festival, given his long involvement in regional affairs.

Moreover, his penchant for travel even while Congress is in session and his position as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment virtually dictated he would be near all the action at a time all the region would be represented in American Samoa at a major Pacific event during which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice would be holding a summit with Pacific foreign ministers in nearby Apia and the King of Tonga would be crowned in nearby Nuku’alofa.

It was shocking, then, when there were no press releases out of Eni about his involvement in either the summit or the coronation. Instead he surfaced back in Washington to take part in a meeting of Asian and Pacific American leaders with Sen. Barack Obama. It did not seem logical that he would pass up the summit and the coronation for such a routine political meeting so it could be surmised that he might have been summoned back to Washington for some critical vote in either the Natural Resources or Foreign Affairs Committees on which he sits.

This happened once before when the Speaker did not approve his request to travel back to American Samoa for an important chief’s funeral while the House was in session because his vote was needed in committee on a key energy bill. He issued a face-saving press release explaining his absence from Fai’ivae’s funeral because of the Speaker's "request," but nothing this time; nor did there appear to be any critical votes last week in either committee.

It all became clear when reliable sources revealed that Eni and his chief enforcer, Lisa Williams, demanded a speaking role for him at the summit and, when the State Department refused to let him speak, he chose to boycott the meeting. The good news is that, unlike 1990, when he was not invited at all to participate in President Bush 41’s historic summit with island heads of government in Honolulu, this time he did not try to wreak the gathering by urging island foreign ministers to boycott it.

Perhaps Eni would have been able to speak if Lisa Williams had not played hardball, once again overplaying her hand (the woman ranks right up there with Saddam Hussein when it comes to miscalculations), but the State Department also is well aware of Eni’s well-deserved reputation (among Republicans and Democrats) as a “loose cannon” and likely was not prepared in any event to give him a platform to make unscripted remarks that might embarrass either Secretary Rice personally or the U.S. in general.

After all, they have a file drawer full of statements he has made over the years attacking his own government, even when standing on foreign soil. Those outbursts may have played well in the media but not in Foggy Bottom. And there still are a lot of people around who remember how Eni held 10 heads of Pacific governments and 400 or so other people virtually hostage last year in the National Geographic Auditorium to listen to him and a variety of Washington politicians he corraled give long winded speeches prior to the annual Pacific Night reception. Yes, likely it was payback time.

Yet, why did he go back to Washington when the King’s coronation was but a few days later? Surely he had not been left off the guest list. And surely Nancy Pelosi would have designated him the “official” representative of the U.S. House of Representatives for the event, as she has done to give him political cover on other occasions. And there are a number of voters of Tongan descent in American Samoa. But it all was soon to come clear.

The gavel adjourning the House had yet to bang before Eni was in the air back to Asia once again, this time to Hong Kong, where he personally delivered birthday greetings from 20 members of Congress to Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-Shing. Just last year at Mr. Li’s invitation, Eni spoke at the privately funded Shantou University in Guangdong Province. It is difficult to imagine Mr. Li’s 80^th birthday taking priority over a once-in-a-generation coronation in the Pacific’s only monarchy of a man the delegate has known for decades but perhaps some of Mr. Li’s wealth has found its way into Eni’s campaign treasury via the numerous Asian contributors listed in federal reports as having given generously to the Samoan legislator.

Now it’s off to where? The summit is over, the coronation concluded yesterday and the last of the Arts Festival participants leave Pago Pago this weekend. Will he come back to file his petitions for re-election? He is expected to be in Denver for the Democratic National Convention August 25-28 so it’s possible he will come down on the Sunday, August 30 flight to file his petitions personally on the Tuesday, September 2 deadline. But it’s equally possible he will drop in here on his way back from Asia to Denver or, given his past history, make an insane journey from Hong Kong here then back to Asia before going to Denver. Wouldn't you love to have his frequent flier miles?!

Why back to Asia? Well, he already has announced he wants to have “consultations” in Korea with the new owners of StarKist over the August recess. Perhaps we also intends to do a little negotiating with the new owners to buy into the Taiwan purse seiner building scheme he is promoting, even though the bill he needs to make the plan very profitable seems stalled in the Senate right now.

He also has said he will be traveling to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait because on a previous trip there he committed to “helping the people.” Precisely what kind of help he intends to give is unknown and how he intends to deliver it is a mystery since Thursday Island is part of Australia, a country not currently being serviced by USAID.

But his travels over the three weeks between Hong Kong and Denver should be easy to track, thanks to the availability of the internet and Eni’s inability to keep his mouth shut. Don't bother to Google. We'll let you know.

Faleomavaega Running Scared

Want some evidence Faleomavaega is running scared in his bid for re-election this fall? This week was Flag Day, the most important secular holiday on American Samoa's calender. Despite the fact that Congress was in session--with many bills of great importance to the territory pending--he spent the full week at home campaigning. Not only did he miss Congress in session, he skipped the Pope's visit to Washington and the White House visit of the first Samoan Division 1A football head coach. His involvement with the Pope may have been marginal, but he surely would have been at the White House for the historic visit of Navy's head coach. Moreover, as chairman of the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the House Foreign Affair Committee, he has jurisdiction over U.S.-Korea relations but he also skipped the visit to Washington of South Korea's president. That omission is particularly significant since he has scheduled hearings on U.S.-South Korea relations for this week coming up.

Why skip all these seemingly important events? Because he knows the voters don't care about any of it and he has two challengers hoping to unseat him this November.

Faleomavaega Looks Silly Chairing Hearing

You know the old question: "What if they gave a party and no one came?" Well, that pretty much sums up the time wasted on an Asia-Pacific subcommittee hearing on Central Asia last week. Rather than summarize the proceedings, I will let the words of Joshua Kucera speak for themselves. Writing for the respected on-line journal Eurasianet.org, the Washington, DC,-based freelance writer--who specializes in security issues in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East--had this to say:

Poor attendance at the hearing suggested that Central Asia is a waning priority among members of Congress. Only two members showed up to the hearing: Eni Faleomavaega, the chair of the subcommittee and a Democrat from American Samoa, and Ruben Hinojosa, a Democrat from Texas. Both showed shaky knowledge of the region, mispronouncing the names of many of the countries in the region and frequently digressing on issues that [Assistant Secretary of State Richard] Boucher said were outside of his portfolio, including missile defense in Europe, the possibility of a boycott of the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing, and excessive profits of oil companies.

You won't read about this hearing in local media.

Media Downplays Faleomavaega Hype

Last week Faleomavaega sent out a press release hyping the historic occasion of him presiding over a session of the Committee of the Whole on the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. It reminds me of a joke about an airline company's public relations department in the early 1960s headlining a story "XYZ Airline Becomes First U.S. Carrier with All Jet Fleet." It is only when you read deeper into the story that you learn that the historic event occurred when the airlines last two prop planes collided in mid-air, killing 134 people.

There may be hope for the local media at long last. Samoa News recognized that Faleomavaega's chairmanship of the Committee of the Whole was not the big deal he made it to be and carried a truncated version of his press release in its "Community Briefs" section of the paper.

Yes, Faleomavaega no doubt was the first Samoan to preside over the Committee of the Whole. Of course, he neglects to point out that only two Samoans ever have served in the House and his predecessor, the disgraced Fofo Sunia (D) was not given that "honor" by the Democrats in charge during his seven years in the House before being forced to resign as part of a plea bargain that included 11 months in prison for his part in a ghost payroll scheme. Rather he focuses attention on the fact that Republicans did not give the gavel to any of the delegates during their 12 years in power. Of course, he fails to mention that whichever party is in power presides over all House sessions and all the delegates were Democrats during that period.

He notes that he could have chaired the committee during the 1993-94 session but "time ran out" before he had the opportunity. More likely, his travel schedule was so heavy he wasn't in town long enough to accept an invitation. That is probably why, despite his seniority, he only now, well into this session, was able to mount the dais.

The fact is, presiding over the House is a chore that majority members mostly try to avoid. The Speaker, who is supposed to preside, rarely does so. Presiding chores usually are rotated among junior members. So, on the few occasions he was in Washington during 1993-94, Faleomavaega probably ducked for cover. Why now, this year? Probably to build his credentials back home, where he now has two announced opponents and faces yet another tough race. The dissatisfaction and restlessness of the electorate is growing.

With good reason.

A final comment. Samoa News also carried a photo on its website with a caption about Faleomavaega presiding over the House. There is no way to tell if the photo was taken the day he presided because the backdrop was the seats in the House not the dais. We hope it was a stock photo rather than one from that day because he was attired in open collar with his trademark bolo tie. While such neck wear is permitted on the Floor, it is not encouraged, especially for someone not of Native American heritage. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), who is of Native American heritage, always dresses in standard Western business attire, for example.

Faleomavaega Fiddles While Pago Pago Burns

It is getting more unbelievable by the day. As I suspected, Eni's strategic decision to publicize his bombshell of switching positions on the next wage raise by releasing the news just ahead of the long Easter weekend worked as he planned. By the time the daily paper published again on Monday, it was all forgotten. Not a peep all week thereafter. Same with the island's most listened to newscast, which also was on a three day weekend hiatus.

To further underscore that Samoa News really does not understand, they buried the ramifications in a page one story in today's paper wrapping up the governor's weekly radio call in show on Saturday. The headline of the article is "Governor appeals to Eni for help for displaced workers." But the story should have been headlined "Canneries Set To Leave" because the real news is in this quote:

Togiola also revealed that he was informed by the canneries that if the next 50 cent hike goes into effect, the canneries will leave the territory and the administration is working with the canneries to prevent this from happening.

The startling news was handled as almost an after thought. One might think in view of the circumstances that Faleomavaega would have cleared his Easter recess schedule (formally called a "district work period" by Congress), either to be home to explain what is going on, work with the canneries and governor to find a solution or to stay in Washington to redouble his efforts to find a solution to the problem.

But it's all business as usual for our wandering delegate. According to story datelined Majuro yesterday, Eni just spent six days in the Marshalls conducting a field hearing. Six days. Can you imagine? The recent field hearing conducted in American Samoa was confined to a single afternoon. The subcommittee got in on a Thursday night, paid some courtesy calls on Friday morning, held a hearing for three hours Friday afternoon, called it a day and went over the Western Samoa for the rest of the weekend until plane time. In contrast, The Marshalls gets six days of his time.

But will the American Samoa media cover any of this? Don't count on it!!

Meantime, Samoa News this morning also reports a newcomer is jumping into the congressional race. Some retired military enlisted officer who works in an administrative job at the college. They must be high fiving and breaking out the champagne in Eni's office. It's just what he hoped for when he rammed through a bill to let him win elections by a plurality. The anti-Eni vote now can be split between the newcomer and veteran politico Aumua Amata, thus giving Eni yet another term to continue his globetrotting. And so it goes.

Faleomavaega Knuckles Under to Miller, Kennedy

Before everyone scurried out of Washington for Easter recess, Delegate Faleomavaega switched his position on another minimum wage hike in American Samoa in what can only be described as an effort to curry favor with two powerful members of Congress: Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA). The two men, who chair the the committees that oversee wage legislation in their respective chambers, co-wrote a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on March 14 saying her department's study of the potential effects of additional wage raises in American Samoa and the Northern Marianas provided insufficient justification to halt the increase scheduled to go into effect in May in the two territories.

Only two weeks earlier, Faleomavaega was the lead witness in a hearing before the Senate Energy Committee (which has jurisdiction over territorial issues), in which he testified in favor of a bill to halt such an increase. At the conclusion of the hearing, a sympathetic Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) promised to do all he could to pass legislation to freeze the minimum wage at the current level.

It would come as no surprise if Bingaman felt betrayed by Faleomavaega's change of heart, which was guided no doubt by his fear of Kennedy's and especially Miller's power in Congress but it really should come as no surprise because this is at least Faleomavaega's fourth and perhaps fifth different position on the issue since it first arose over the 2006 Christmas holidays before Democrats took formal control of Congress.

Among others, American Samoa's tuna industry is likely to be furious at Faleomavaega's new position which he expressed in a letter to Governor Togiola transmitting a copy of the Kennedy/Miller letter to Chao. Saying "As indicated in their letters, the bottom line is we need more specific data and information before we put a hold on another 50-cent increase on our minimum wage."

This bombshell was dropped in time for the Thursday edition of Samoa News but not in time for any immediate reaction. Owing to the Easter holiday, the paper won't publish again until next Monday, leaving all those whose legs were cut out from under them time to stop the bleeding before reacting in public.

In the meantime, add one more crucial issue to the growing list of issue over which time grows shorter and shorter for Faleomavaega to demonstrate he can exercise any substantial influence. In the past, early in his career, he could argue he was too junior. In the middle of his congressional career, he could argue we was in the minority. Now he is a senior Member in the Majority and a subcommittee chairman. The time to produce has come or be exposed for the fraud so many insiders know he is.

OBAMA DISSES FALEOMAVAEGA

In response to a brewing controversy over the racial attitudes of the pastor of his church, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama this week delivered a masterful address on the subject of racial divisions in America. Yet, even though American Samoa Congressional Delegate was one of his earliest and strongest backers in the face of institutional support of Hillary Clinton in American Samoa, Obama totally ignored Pacific Islanders in his speech.

Three times in his remarks Obama referred to minorities in the U.S. but each time omitted Pacific Islanders. In the first instance Obama referred to "problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. " Referring to his pastor's church, he went on later in the speech to talk about "a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old." Finally, he talked of "schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children."

Nowhere is there any indication that he recognizes that Pacific Islanders matter, too. Hillary Clinton announced some time ago that she was appointing American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono as a national co-chairman of her advisory council on Asian and Pacific Americans. We have seen no similar announcement that Faleomavaega has been appointed to any role in the Obama campaign. Obama may be building coalitions, as he stated, but it is apparent that Faleomavaega need not apply for a role with a group that is not part of it.