FALEOMAVAEGA CYNICISM REACHES NEW LEVEL

When Faleomavaega introduced his “ASPIRE” bill in the last Congress, which essentially would have subsidized Star-Kist to keep its cannery—the territory’s major private employer—in the territory, it seemed that the frenetic delegate had reached a new level of cynicism, since there never was any chance the bill would pass.  Nevertheless, hope was held out by hundreds of not thousands of Samoans that their jobs could be saved in the wake of the departure of the other cannery, Chicken of the Sea.

Of course, even though his own party controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, Faleomavaega got get nothing more than a hearing on the measure.  It died in the subcommittee chaired by a fellow delegate, Guam’s Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D).  Virtually everyone but Star-Kist testified against the bill, including the Obama administration, which would have been a major embarrassment for Faleomavaega if the American Samoa media had reported the story.  But they didn’t, and once again he skated.

If he could not move a bill through a friendly House, he knew he was not going to move it once Republicans took over in 2011 so he didn’t even try.  But he also knew that he was likely going to face his toughest re-election fight this year when Governor Togiola (D) would be barred by law from seeking a third full term in office.  So, in order to either scare Togiola to the sidelines or bolster his own popularity, Faleomavaega made his next and even more cynical move: promise citizenship to nationals and national status to aliens.  Last year he announced he would introduce a bill that, if enacted, would allow U.S. nationals to become U.S. citizens without having to move to the states.  At the same time, he also said he wanted to push legislation that would allow long term resident aliens, mostly people from nearby independent Samoa, to apply for U.S. national status, a status now that is reserved exclusively to persons born in American Samoa.

Of course, aliens cannot vote but many have them who have been in the territory for more than 20 years have large families who can vote and would be more disposed to reward Faleomavaega for trying to make their parents nationals.  What makes this so cynical is that Faleomavaega knows such a bill would not have a prayer in Congress.  It would be considered, if considered, by the judiciary committee, not one of the committees on which he serves.  To underscore the point, Faleomavaega’s Northern Marianas colleague recently tried to sneak a bill through the House by unanimous consent that would have conferred citizenship on a tiny number of people in the Northern Marianas until immigration hawks caught the maneuver and had it killed at the 11^th hour.

So, now comes Faleomavaega’s most cynical move yet.  He has teamed up with other delegates on a bill to extend the Supplemental Security Income program to American Samoa.  This was one of his promises in his early campaigns and once elected he did offer such a bill.  But, like ASPIRE, it went no where, even in the go-go era of the 90s when the U.S. treasury was flush with cash and his party controlled Congress under President Clinton.  With record trillion dollar deficits and Republicans in control of the House, Faleomavaega has no more hope of passing SSI than he did 20 years ago.

However, ASPIRE, citizenship and SSI may have been enough to do the trick, as Togiola announced on his radio program last weekend that he would not run for Congress this year.  Faleomavaega and his staff undoubtedly did a high five and breathed a sigh of relief.  However, we are not convinced of Togiola’s sincerity.  He is under attack on a number of fronts these days for decisions he has made so it makes sense for him to get out of the spotlight for now.   We would not be surprised if he has a “change of heart” this summer and decides to run after all.  Keep an eye on the election office come July to see who picks up a congressional packet.

Woes Mount for Faleomavaega

President Obama can console himself over having a bad week by measuring himself against Faleomavaega, whose horrible year continues. Clearly he is bracing himself for a challenge for reelection by Gov. Togiola, who is barred by law from running for re-election last year.

Not one for much legislative activity over the course of his career, Faleomavaega has introduced or co-sponsored a flurry of bills the past few weeks to bolster his credentials with his electorate and to strengthen his chances for reelection next November. He also has tossed a bone to Organized Labor in an obvious effort to pave the wave for major contributions from the unions to his campaign by publicly endorsing the idea of establishing a workers' union at the local StarKist tuna cannery.

One of his bills would convert long-time resident aliens to U.S. Nationals. Were he to succeed in getting this bill passed, of course, he would have the gratitude of a group of new voters that would be large enough to cement his reelection. However, he knows that this bill has no more chance of passing in the current climate in Washington than did his laughable ASPIRE bill in the last Congress. Readers will recall that even though his party controlled Congress and the White House, he even had fellow party members speak out against the bill, which never passed out of the subcommittee.

The clever Faleomavaega knows that even though Congress is not likely to make it easier for more immigrants to get into the country, many of these long term resident aliens have numerous children born in the territory who now are adults (and all eligible to vote). It is their gratitude he is seeking at the ballot box.

Faleomavaega long has prided himself on being the voice of the Pacific in Washington (when he's there) and an influential senior policymaker. Apparently Hawaii's two House members bought this load of baloney because when the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to abolish the Hawaii-based East West Center, they turned to their Samoan colleague, a member of the committee, to save the day. At a mark up of the bill, the delegate argued against the closure and offered an amendment to retain the institution that was quickly voted down. Needless to say, his arguments fell on deaf ears and it will be up to the two Hawaii congresswomen to try to save the Center when the bill comes before the full House.

Eni has never been especially known for bipartisanship (his Memorial Day press release was filled with invective against Republicans) except in one area: he has roundly criticized administrations of both parties for neglecting the Pacific. Indeed, it is ironic that the U.S. Involvement in the region has decreased as steadily as Faleomavaega's seniority (and, ostensibly, “influence”) has increased over the past 23 years. He even criticized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for not making visits to the island countries on her Australia and New Zealand trip earlier this year.

As a result of that trip, however, she did send Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell on an eight-nation mission to the islands. Curiously, there was not a peep out of Faleomavaega about Campbell's trip. No words of praise or anything else. It would be our guess that Faleomavaega wanted to go on the trip but was turned down. So he said nothing either out of pique or embarrassment, just as he said nothing when Clinton's predecessor, Condoleeza Rice, held a summit in Apia with Pacific foreign ministers but declined to let Faleomavaega have any role beyond being a member of her delegation. Even though he was just a few miles away in Pago Pago at the time, he pouted at not being allowed to speak and stayed home altogether. Campbell, a career foreign service officer long active in the Pacific, was aware of this incident and also knows Faleomavaega's reputation as a loose cannon. Most likely he wanted the delegate nowhere near his eight-nation visit.

To add insult to injury, it is his rival Togiola who has scored big on the diplomatic front. When Clinton stopped in Pago Pago on her way back to Washington from her Australia-New Zealand trip, both the governor and the congressman were there to greet her. Despite American Samoa's dire economic straits, Eni used his brief time with the secretary to urge her to give debt relief to Cambodia. In fairness, it should be conceded that Cambodia is part of Clinton's portfolio and American Samoa is not, but the governor wisely used his time to ask the Secretary (whose campaign for president he had endorsed in 2008 while Eni supported Obama) to review the U.S. policy not to permit its territories to seek official observer status at the Pacific Islands Forum.

As far as is known, Cambodian debt relief has gone nowhere but this week Clinton wrote Togiola to advise him she has changed the policy on Forum observer status and, moreover, she has invited to be a member of the U.S. delegation to the Forum next month in New Zealand, where the U.S. will formally ask that body to grant observer status to all its territories. Watch very closely in the next few days for press releases from Faleomavaega's office to see what he has to say about this policy change. Watch also whether he will be part of the U.S. delegation to the Forum.

So, it has been a very bad couple of weeks for Faleomavaega in what has been a very bad year. With the change of control of the House after the November 2010 election, of course, he lost his subcommittee chairmanship in January. To make matters worse, the following month he lost the one House chairmanship he expected to get when Freshman Congresswoman Judy Chu was named chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Since the formation of the caucus many years ago, it always had been a practice to have a Mainland APA in one of the two top positions and someone from the islands (Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and, more recently, the Northern Marianas) in the other post. Traditionally, the chairmanship rotated annually, with the vice chairman automatically moving up. Guam Congressman Robert Underwood served as vice chairman at one point and then became chairman the following year.

Seven years ago, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) rotated into the chairmanship but, unlike his predecessors, he continued in the position until this year. All during his chairmanship, Faleomavaega served as vice chairman. So, when Honda announced he was stepping down, Eni was ready to take the gavel but Honda stabbed him in the back by recommending the chairmanship go to the freshman Chu, his fellow Californian and the first woman of Chinese descent to be elected to the House. The stunned Faleomavaega let it be known he would not oppose Chu but it was a huge blow to him. Guam's Madeleine Bordallo took his position as vice chairman. It will be interesting to see if and when she rotates into the chairmanship. If it is any time soon, one might surmise that Honda held on to the chairmanship as long as he did to wait for someone new to be elected to the House while he blocked the unpredictable Eni's ascent to the chair.

The announcement this week by Faleomavaega that he will receive an award from the Japanese American Citizens League for his service in Congress was most likely pushed by the Japanese American Honda as a sop to Faleomavaega for having stabbed him in the back in February. Otherwise, why now? Did the JACL only just discover Faleomavaega after 23 years in Congress?

Perhaps Faleomavaega should count himself fortunate not to have become CAPAC chairman. After all, he was one of Obama's earliest supporters but has received no substantial favors from him in return. He may blame Republicans for wanting to abolish the East West Center, for example, but it was his friend Mr. Obama who had proposed in his own budget to cut the Center's funding in half. In the nearly three years the Hawaii-born Obama has been president, he has seen fit to meet formally with the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses but not the APA caucus. At a meeting with staff at the White House just last week, Honda complained about this and Obama's staff finally committed to setting up a meeting. Had Faleomavaega been chair, perhaps such a meeting still would be nowhere on the horizon, giving further evidence of his lack of clout in Washington.

Of course, few people in American Samoa are aware of any of these stories because the local daily newspaper, Samoa News, where Eni's sister-in-law (who also is Democratic National Committeewoman for the territory) is one of the editors. [Can you imagine the howls of protest if any dominant paper in the states had as an editor a member of either party's national committee?] The paper gladly publishes all of his press releases, mostly verbatim, but don't look for any negative stories. Nor is there ever any analysis, tying all these threads together. No, you have to read it here if you are going to read it at all.

Faleomavaega Blasts ABCDEFGroup Blog

We have been highly critical of the local media in American Samoa for its "inadequate" coverage of our wandering Congressman, Faleomavaega Eni, who seems to be everywhere in  the world but Washington or American Samoa most of the time.  We have long felt the leading news outlets have given him a pass for his foibles and indiscretions, especially Samoa News, where his sister-in-law is an editor.  Most of the controversies in which he has been involved seem to get sept under the rug.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to see the leading radio news organization, Radio Station KHJ-FM raise questions about some of the campaign money he has raised, based on our report, even if the story were centered on Faleomavaega's condemnation of us for our report.  See: http://www.talanei.com/viewNews.php?storyID=4371.  Give Faleomavaega credit for his ability to divert attention from controversy by attacking his adversary.  Regrettably he sucked KHJ into the diversion.  Instead of condemning our report, he should have attacked the Project of Government Oversight (POGO), the source of our story.  We did not raise the question of whether his campaign contributions might be tied to his support for the dictatorship in Kazahkstan.  POGO did.  We only reported what POGO suggested.   But of course, it makes more sense for him to attack us, since we have an admitted bias against him, rather than attack POGO, which is a respected non-partisan, non-profit organization that has no agenda.

Nevertheless, we salute KHJ-FM for bringing this important story to the attention of the public.  As for Samoa News, we will give them a half salute for carrying a buried link to this story in their on-line edition.  They may not have swept it under the rug but they did manage to push it into a corner.  Until they do their job and carry this sort of news up front in their A section, we will continue to give them a big raspberry for pro-Faleomavaega bias.   It hardly comes as a surprise not only because his sister-in-law is an editor while also serving as Democratic National Committeewoman for the territory, a fact we do not recall seeing ever having been disclosed (she does byline some stories), but because the paper has a leftist bias.  It is no secret Faleomavaega is on the left of the Democrat Party and was a charter member of the socialistic Congressional Progressive Caucus and Samoa News often carries editorials and op-ed columns by such left wingers as Paul Krugman.

KHJ wrote: "Faleomavaega  commended POGO for championing good government but said at no time has the group contacted him to inquire about the Central Asia Caucus, or the contributions mentioned.  Neither has the ABCDEF Group or Samoa News which posted the story on its website."
Let us note for the record that at no time did Faleomavaega contact us to refute POGO's story, either.

Foreign Funds May Have Been Funneled to Faleomavaega

One of the more curious aspects of Faleomavaega's career has been his devotion to issues
involving Kazahkstan, a central Asian country he has visited numerous times.  Central Asian
countries have never been under the legislative jurisdiction of the Asia-Pacific subcomittee on
which he serves and which he chaired from 2007 to this January.  The mutual love relationship
has been so great that the Kazakh government once even took out an advertisement in the
Washington Post to sing Faleomavaega's praises.  Now it may be coming more clear.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) is a thirty-year-old nonpartisan, independent, watchdog that champions good government reforms. POGO, which, according to its mission statement, investigates "corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government," has turned its attention to Kazahkstan's cozy relations with members of Congress.

The POGO investigation has uncovered circumstantial evidence that strongly supports some claims that the Kazakh Embassy has used lobbyists to create two separate caucuses dedicated to supporting its interests: the Friends of Kazakhstan caucus and the Caucus on Central Asia.  Employees from the lobbying firms hired to create the most recent caucus—the Caucus on Central Asia—have donated thousands of dollars to every member that has served in a leadership capacity of that caucus.

According to POGO: "One Member of Congress, Delegate Eni Faleomavaega from American Samoa, a co-chair and driving force behind the creation of the Central Asia caucus, particularly stands out. In the 2010 election cycle, two of Faleomavaega’s top organizational contributors had been under contract with the Republic of Kazakhstan: Employees and family members from Policy Impact Communications, the lobbying firm hired to create the Central Asia caucus, contributed $4,800, making the firm Faleomavaega’s second largest organizational contributor; and another firm, Steptoe and Johnson, which is the Republic of Kazakhstan’s outside counsel, contributed $2,000 through its Political Action Committee."

Faleomavaega long has been the subject of criticism by his opponents for relying on big contributors with Asian names living in California and labor unions with no activities in American Samoa for the lion's share of his campaign budgets.   A few maximum contributions from these special interests will buy a lot of  election day plate lunches for voters.  He always seems to be able to tap these same sources time and again for all the money he needs to ward off stiff challenges.   His supporters insist donors with Asian names are legal contributors interested in his work on the Foreign Affairs Committee, with some having interest on his position on tuna boats built in Taiwan whose owners want access to the South Pacific through American Samoa.  He switched his position recently to oppose the legislative change necessary to clear the way for the boats so it will be interesting to see what contributors drop off his list this next campaign.

Meanwhile, there is no telling where the POGO investigation is going.  The full details of the scandal can be read here: http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/06/kazakhstan-family-feud-engtagles-members-of-congress.html.   One thing is almost certain: don't hold your breath waiting for Samoa News, where Faleomavaega's sister-in-law is an editor, to report on this issue.  Expect this to be swept under the rug the way they have minimized almost every controversy involving Faleomavaega over the years.

Weiner Resignation Could Thwart Faleomavaega Ambitions

As unimaginable as it may sound, the resignation of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), may have thwarted Faleomavaega's ambitions to rise to the chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a prospect that undoubtedly sends chills up the spine of House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and other senior leaders in her party.

All the stars would have had to line up right next year for it to happen but it is quite possible that Democrats could retake the House while Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA), the full committee chairman, and Gary Ackerman (D-NY), the second ranking Democrat on the committee, were losing re-election battles.  That scenario would put third ranking Faleomavaega in line to become chairman.

As unlikely as it would seem for Berman and Ackerman to be be in trouble in their safe seats, they will be running in newly configured districts, thanks to redistricting resulting out of the 2010 census.   If Democrats were to catch a wave, normally the two veterans would be among the least likely to be in trouble.  However, a new non-partisan redistricting commission has thrown Berman into the same district with another senior Democrat, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA).  There is said to be no love lost between the two men and, if they should decide to square off against each other, there is no certainty in the outcome.

Meanwhile, in New York, the state legislature must redraw the district lines in a way to adjust for the loss of two seats as a result of decennial reapportionment.  There has been a gentleman's agreement that one seat would be eliminated in the Republican leaning upstate area and the second seat would be taken from the New York City area, where Ackerman's constituency is.

Now that Weiner has resigned, it makes the job easier for the legislature, which simply can eliminate his seat and make all the other incumbents, including Ackerman, safe for re-election.  So, if Berman were to lose next year, the Democrats still should have Ackerman in place to block Faleomavaega's rise.  Of course, Democrats still would have to win back the majority and it is much to early to tell if that could happen.

But more than likely, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.  American foreign policy should be safe for another two years.  Nonetheless, all three men are getting up there in years (Berman is 70; Ackerman is 68; and Faleomavaega is 67) and Faleomavaega has been in poor health for a number of years.  The retirement of death of any of them would change the equation.  Stay tuned.

Faleomavaega Praises Reelection of Dictator despite International Community Views

Caspionet, the state run national satellite television channel of the Republic of Kazakhstan has seized upon the comments of one person, Faleomavaega, to declare on its website,  http://www.caspionet.kz/eng/general/Eni_Faleomavaega_congratulates_Nursultan_Nazarbayev_on_victory_in_elections_1302327535.html
 That “the US Congress believes that the early elections in Kazakhstan demonstrated transparency and freedom of choice.”  Caspionet goes on to say Faleomavaega noted that this transparency and freedom of choice “was because of the officials of the country and especially Nursultan Nazarbayev.”   Capionet quotes Faleomavaega as saying: “For a country like Kazakhstan with some 40 religious organizations, 65% Muslim and 20% Russian Orthodox, I think speaks well to the fact that it has rather tremendous religious freedom, allowing the people to express their own personal religious preferences.

Oh, my, my.

Of course, the respected international Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) saw it a bit differently.  According to a Reuters News Agency report, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/04/kazakhstan-election-osce-idUSLDE7330D120110404, “Kazakhstan's presidential election revealed the same shortcomings as past polls,” with International observers noting “that reforms necessary for holding genuine democratic elections have yet to materialize."

Reuters went on to quote Amb. Daan Everts as saying "Regrettably we have to conclude that this election could and should have been better."   Everts is Head of the long-term election observation mission deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
Faleomavaega’s continued fawning support for Kazahkstan’s long serving dictator comes as no surprise, as he has lent his backing to the Kazakh president in the past and has also warmed to other dictators as well, including Fiji’s Frank Bainamarama.

But his comments here are so completely at odds with the findings of international observers, and are so embarrassing, one has to believe that Samoa News, where his sister-in-law is an editor, will quickly and quietly bury them.   Prediction: you will only read this story here.   The links to the Reuters and Caspionet stories are provided above, lest you think we are exaggerating.

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.