Faleomavaega: Obama's Lackey

This blogster says it all:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/10/obamas-mop-up-m.html

Togiola and Faleomavaega: One Day at a Bar

Togiola was talking to Faleomavaega one day how both of them had lost touch with the people. "Eni, I have a great idea! I know how we can win back the people."

"Great, but how so you propose we go about that", asked Eni? "

Togiola responds, "we'll put on some everyday clothes like most people wear, and then we'll buy a dog. When we look the part, we'll go to a quiet bar somewhere in Tafuna and show them that we really enjoy the regular life of the island, and show admiration and respect for the hard working people living there."

A few days later, all decked out and with the requisite dog at heel, they set off from the Governor's Office towards Tafuna. Eventually they arrived at just the place they were looking for.

With the dog in tow, they walk into the bar. When they stepped up to the bar, the bartender takes a step back and says, "Aren't you Togiola and Faleomavaega?"

"Yes we are", says Togiola, "and what a great bar you have here. We were just passing through and Eni suggested we stop and take in some local color."

They then order a couple of beers and proceed to drink them down, all the while, chatting up a storm with anyone who would listen.

All of a sudden... the bar room door opens and a grizzled old man comes in. He walks up to the dog, lifts its tail, and looks underneath, shrugs his shoulders and walks out the door.

A few moments later, in comes another old man... walks up to the dog, lifts its tail, looks underneath, scratches his head and then leaves the bar.

Over the course of the next hour or so, another four or five people come in, lift the dog's tail, and go away looking puzzled.

Eventually Togiola and Eni could stand it no longer and called the bartender over.

"Tell me", says Eni, "why did all those old men come in and look under the dog's tail like that? Is it some sort of old custom here?"

"Good Lord no", said the bartender. "Its just that someone had told them there was a dog in this bar with two Assholes and they wanted to come in to have a look!"

Faleomavaega Partly to Blame for Tucson Tragedy

Although we are not aware of any public statements Faleomavaega may have made following the Tuscon shooting that took six lives, he nonetheless has to shoulder part of the blame for the tragedy.  For it is the left wing of the Democrat Party, of which he is a proud member, that has forced the "mainstreaming" of so many mentally ill persons who a generation ago would have been receiving in-patient treatment at secure facilities.  Shame on him for such an ill conceived policy.

Although he is the senior Democrat in Congress involved in Asian affairs, President Obama passed him over when extending invitations for last week's dinner honoring Chinese President Hu, just as he was snubbed for the state dinner for the leader of India, even though he long has been a congressional champion of U.S.-Indian relations.  We hoped he enjoyed his consolation prizes: a ride to Washington from Hawaii on Air Force One and an  invitation to have lunch with Hu a day after the lavish State Dinner.

In fact, the presidential plane ride may be the high point of Eni's year.  Since his return to minority status in the House, Eni has watched himself stripped of his chairmanship and stripped of his vote in the Committee of the Whole.  Moreover, Republicans have slashed five percent from his office budget and new restrictions have been placed on congressional travel.   In many ways, as a non-voting delegate, he is lower on the totem pole than the nine new Democrats who were elected to the House.  He may have a nicer office than they do because of his seniority but that's about all.  If you want to see what it's like to be a new member in the minority, just read this article:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010305462_2.html?sid=ST2011010305630.

Meanwhile, in the wake of Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie's failure to find Barack Obama's legitimate birth certificate, questions are being asked anew about Faleomavaega's role in covering up Obama's past.  One such article his here: http://debsimonforcongress.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-14-16-2011-obamas-grandparents.html.   Perhaps the Obama plane ride was to assure Faleomavaega's continued silence about the real purpose of his trip to Indonesia.

Faleomavaega also figured in the Wikileaks diplomatic document dump.   One classified cable generated by the U.S. embassy in New Zealand said "Bainimarama asked Australia and New Zealand to drop their demands for 2009 elections, and called on the other PIF states to not listen to Australia and New Zealand.  He also credited U.S. Representative Eni Faleomavaega with having a better understanding of the situation in Samoa and that Faleomavaega's views, rather than those of Australia and New Zealand, should form the basis of USG policy towards Fiji."   Even if he isn't as welcome in Washington these days, at least Eni seems to continue to have a fan in Fiji's dictator.

Since he is virtually useless in Washington now, our betting is that Eni will find a way around the travel restrictions and be back on the road as soon as he can.  Nothing for him to do in DC and besides, now that his floor vote has been taken away, he won't have to worry about being exposed, as he was last term, as the Member of Congress to miss the most votes (41%).  Of course, don't expcect the territory's leading newspaper, Samoa News, to cover any of this.  His sister-in-law continues to be one of the small group of editors of the paper.  And so it goes.



 

Faleomavaega: The Travelin' Man

A beautiful young Samoan woman was so depressed that she decided to end her life by throwing herself into the ocean. But just before she could throw herself from the docks, Congressman  Eni Faleomavaega stopped her.
"You have so much to live for," said Eni. "Look, I'm sailing up to Honolulu tomorrow and I can stow you away on the ship.  "I'll take care of you, bring you food every day, and keep you happy."

With nothing to lose, combined with the fact that she had always wanted to go to Hawaii, the woman accepted.

That night Eni brought her aboard and hid her in a lifeboat. From then on, every night he would bring her three sandwiches and make love to her until dawn.

Five days later she was discovered by the captain during a routine inspection.

"What are you doing here?" asked the captain.

"I have an arrangement with one of your passengers," she replied. "He brings food and I get a free trip to Honolulu."

"I see," the captain says.

"Plus," (wanting to make a full confession, she adds) "He's screwing me!"

"He certainly is" replied the captain. "This is the Manu’a Ferry."

Togiola Upstages Faleomavaega with Hillary Clinton

Following his recent re-election, Faleomavaega decided to stick around the island for awhile, because Secretary of State was due through for a refueling stop on the final leg of her recent trip through Asia.  Faleomavaega, of course, is still chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific until January 3, 2011, when he will lose that post as his party sinks into the minority in Congress.  According to press reports, Faleomavaega used the little time he has with Clinton during her 90 minute stop to raise the matter of the Cambodian war debt while Governor Togiola stuck to issues of much more concern to American Samoa.  He was able to extract out of the secretary a promise to look into allowing American Samoa to have observer membership in the Pacific Islands Forum, a desire that every American Samoa governor has had going back to Peter Coleman.   He also asked her to devise a means to allow American Samoa to participate in U.S. policy making on APEC issues, especially fisheries.

Some observers believe this may be the opening salvo in a 2012 congressional campaign that would pit the two men against each other.  Togiola is term limited and cannot run for governor again.  Even though Faleomavaega has won 12 times, Togiola knows he remains vulnerable.  While all the other delegates to Congress long since have consolidated their constituencies, Faleomavaega consistently has had reasonably close races in good Democrat years and bad.   This was a bad year for Democrats but he had his subcommittee chairmanship and seniority to argue for another term.  Now he loses the gavel and probably his vote in the Committee of the Whole.  There also is a real possibility Republicans will abolish the Natural Resources subcommittee on insular affairs.

From his perch as governor, expect Togiola over the next two years to set up situations where he can emphasize how little Faleomavaega has actually accomplished in Congress for American Samoa and, as he did with the Clinton visit, show how he concerns himself with American Samoa issues while Eni is still focused on Asia.  I am sure it did not hurt this time that Togiola was an early Clinton supporter in the 2008 presidential primaries while Faleomavaega was an early Obama backer.  So far, Faleomavaega's Obama connection has gotten him nothing out of the Obama administration.   Stay tuned.

Faleomavaega Wins Battle, May Have Lost War

A tired and haggard-looking Faleomavaega thanked his supporters for giving him a twelfth term in Congress at a time when 60 of his Democrat colleagues--including several Members more senior than he is--were dropping like flies in the Nov. 2 federal elections.  But while he may have won that battle, the victory may be short-lived as his party's losses forced the Democrats into minority after only four years in power in the House.  Democrats have not had such a short run since 1981-1895, over 100 years ago.  Even though the loss of some of his senior colleagues, three of whom chaired powerful committees, means he moves up a few notches in seniority, his higher ranking won't count for much, as House rules put all the power in the hands of the Majority.  Perhaps he can squeeze a slightly larger office out of it, since they are assigned strictly by seniority without regard to party affiliation.

What is he losing?  Well, first, he already has been stripped of his subcommittee chairmanship, so he will have no platform to push his pet projects, such as a Japanese apology to Korean comfort women, self-determination for West Papua, and U.S. environmental cleanup in Southeast Asia.   Moreover, the Pacific regional USAID office recently announced by Hillary Clinton wasily could fall to the Republican budgetary axe next year.

The territories in general are at a disadvantage in that all six of them (including the District of Columbia) because they are all Democrats.  When the decisions are made in the House Republican Conference, there is no one to make their case.  Therefore, the earliest decision to watch in whether Republicans abolish the rule that gives delegates a vote in the Committee of the Whole on the House Floor.  Then also look to see if the House decides to count the delegates when deciding party ratios for committees.  Republicans probably will set the ratios without counting the delegates then make the delegates count against the ratios in committee.

Then early next year, the  new committee chairmen will decide how to organize their subcommittees.  Watch to see if the subcommittee that considers insular legislation is abolished.  If it is, then jurisdiction would revert to the full committee.  If the new chairman of Foreign Affairs might decides to remove global environment affairs from the jurisdiction of the Asia Pacific subcommittee, that would be another blow to Faleomavaega, who has interest in those issues and also used the jurisisdiction as a pretext for his incessant world travels.

 Of course, what has always been top priority for Faleomavaega is his ability to travel.  He may not suffer too much because congressional delegations need to be bipartisan to qualify for military aircraft.  Quite often when they were previously in the majority, Republicans were grateful to have Faleomavaega around to give them bipartisan cover for foreign travel.  Word got around Congress that he was generally available for any trip the GOP wanted to organize.  So, he won't need the global environment jurisdiction to let him continue to be a globe trotter.

He still has to watch his back at home because, unlike the other delegates, he has not secured his seat.  Only in his second term, his Northern Marianas colleague, an independent, managed to beat competitors, including a former governor and former lt. governor, from the three established parties with 43% of the vote.  Delegates from the Virgin Islands (71%) and the District of Columbia (91%) had comfortable victories while the Guam delegate was unopposed for re-election.

Obama Repeats Faleomavaega Racist Slur against Republicans

There has been a Republican backlash against President Obama for employing a term associated with the Civil Rights era as he has taken to the campaign trail in support of his party’s nominees in next week’s midterm elections.  Although he insists that he wants to reach out to Republicans after the elections to solve the nation’s problems together, in recent stump speeches he also has said, "We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they've got to sit in back."

No doubt if a Republican officeholder had used that phrase, he would have faced howls of protest from African American activists who recall vividly that the modern Civil Right era was sparked in the mid-1950s by Rosa Parks’s refusal to sit at the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama as was required by the segregation laws and policies of the times.

When asked about the comment at a White House briefing, Presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted Obama was not trying to label Republicans as racists, but there was no such ambiguity when Faleomavaega used the same phrase at a hearing last year on his ASPIRE bill, which was meant to bail out Star-Kist, American Samoa’s remaining cannery.  The bill has languished in the Natural Resources Committee and is not expected to be taken up in the lame duck session planned for after the election.

Although Republicans were joined by virtually everyone else who testified (except for the Tri Marine Company whose boats supply fish to Star-Kist, Star-Kist itself and the territory’s governor) in opposing the bill, his statement singled out only the Republicans by saying “Republicans should make [the situation] right, not by asking Samoans to ride in the back of the bus, but by supporting legislation which puts American Samoa back to work.”

There is no indication Obama, who, like Faleomavaega, grew up in Hawaii, was aware of the delegate’s slur when he made his own similar comment but Faleomavaega will have a difficult time building bridges with Republicans if he should be re-elected to the House next week and find them in the majority next year.

At the time Faleomavaega offered his slur, Samoa News, where Faleomavaega’s sister-in-law works as a reporter and editor, made no mention of it in its coverage of the hearing, so it will be interesting to see if the paper makes any reference to it if they cover the Obama flap on the Mainland.  Interestingly enough, with but six days to go before the election, Samoa News, which is the territory’s leading source of information, has published not a single story about the campaign for Congress, just an announcement from the election office of where the polling places will be.  They have, however, published some of Faleomavaega’s announcements of federal grants awarded to the territory.  With the deck so loaded in his favor, it is doubtful they will cover the “ride in the back” controversy.