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Editorials
Wednesday, November 15, 2000Clinton to halt push
for monument statusThe issue: President Clinton has promised not to designate the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national monument.
GOVERNOR Cayetano's brief visit with President Clinton during an Air Force One refueling stop on the Big Island produced a promise to halt a proposal to ban fishing and gathering corals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The Interior Department has supported such a ban, which could have damaging economic effects on the state.
Cayetano had written to Clinton in opposition to the proposal that the string of small, uninhabited islands extending 1,400 miles northwest of Kauai be designated a national monument. Like Cayetano, Hawaii's congressional delegation opposes such a move, but designation of national monuments does not require congressional approval.
The Hawaiian environmental alliance Kahea has lobbied in Washington in favor of the monument status because of concern that the fish population in surrounding waters has been depleted and corals are being damaged. The monument designation would create a marine sanctuary around the islands.
The Commerce Department favors a sanctuary designation that would be less restrictive. And a scientific committee that advises the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council questions whether the situation is as dire as claimed by Kahea. Commercial fishing restrictions imposed by the council already extend beyond those that scientists say are required to support sustainable resources.
"What we wanted was to be able to work out an agreement between the state, the Department of Commerce and Westpac, and he (Clinton) agreed to do that," Cayetano said. "I think the people in our fishing industry will be very pleased."
Clinton's promise not only provides a short reprieve but could delay a final decision indefinitely. Neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore has taken a position on the issue.
Whoever wins the presidency can be expected to look more closely at the economic ramifications of a monument designation because of Clinton's decision. The next president's position hopefully will follow public hearings on the effects of such a designation.
Florida election mess
could harm president
THE legal battle over Florida's electoral votes -- and the U.S. presidency -- has taken on the appearance of guerrilla warfare, with skirmishes at various points in the state. The messiness of this unprecedented civics lesson threatens to harm any chance of bipartisan cooperation in the next president's term of office.
The Florida experience has educated many Americans about the nature of presidential elections. They are essentially state elections to determine which candidate should receive each state's votes in the Electoral College. That is as it should be. George W. Bush learned that lesson quickly after his lawyers barked up the federal tree and were turned away.
Having recognized that numerous election-related issues were of state jurisdiction, Florida's Supreme Court should have organized a system for handling the problem with greater efficiency. Instead, unnecessary legal chaos produced fears that lawsuits could keep the election in doubt for weeks if not months.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican, declared that she would abide strictly by a state law requiring -- or allowing, depending on legal interpretation -- her to stop receiving vote compilations from the counties after 5 p.m. yesterday.
Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, issued an opinion saying that hand recounts could go forward to completion beyond that deadline. Since absentee ballots are due on Friday of this week, Harris' reason for setting an earlier deadline for other compilations is obviously partisan.
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled that Harris could, at her discretion, receive ballots after that deadline. Harris said any discretion was reserved for a hurricane or other natural disasters. County officials were left guessing whether to start or stop recounts.
The bedlam has resulted in calls for doing away with the Electoral College, which, as we noted last week, would weaken the clout of smaller states. Hawaii is among 13 states -- with a combined population of 11 million -- with only three or four electoral votes each.
Together these states have 45 electoral votes. Illinois, with a population of just over 11 million, has 22 electoral votes. Hopefully, the call for ending the Electoral College and thus federalizing presidential elections will subside.
Whichever candidate survives Florida will be handed a damaged presidency, shaken with partisan animosity and facing a Congress that is as divided as it can be.
The historical pattern of gains by the party out of power in off-year elections makes it probable that the next president will face an opposition Congress in two years. The level of ferocity in Florida may signal worse times ahead.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
