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Editorials
Saturday, May 27, 2000Reopening Natatorium
caps Memorial DayTHE Waikiki Natatorium, closed since 1979 as a health and safety hazard, will be partially reopened tomorrow with Memorial Day rededication ceremonies. The crumbling facade, grandstand, and shower and changing areas have been restored but the swimming pool -- the heart of the memorial -- is still unrepaired and off limits.The issue: The partially restored Waikiki Natatorium will be rededicated on Memorial Day.
No occasion could be more appropriate for the reopening than Memorial Day, because the Natatorium is a memorial to Hawaii's World War I dead. The ceremonies will be the highlight of Memorial Day events here.
Even partial restoration represents real and very welcome progress to eliminate an eyesore and do justice to a structure of historical and architectural significance. But supporters of the Natatorium should not rest until full restoration is achieved.
The partial restoration reflects a standoff in the battle between proponents of full restoration and preservation of the memorial and advocates of its demolition. Opponents of restoration lost a court battle last August to prevent work on the project from beginning.
But they have forced the Harris administration to await approval of state Health Department water quality rules before work on the salt-water swimming pool can proceed.
Another problem is funding. The city's original plan called for full restoration at a cost of $10.85 million. The partial restoration now completed cost $4.4 million. To obtain funding for the pool, Mayor Harris would have to go back to the City Council for an additional appropriation or seek funding elsewhere. Several council members have balked at providing more money.
Harris has said he's talked to the Hawaii congressional delegation about obtaining federal funding and discussed the idea of a national fund-raising campaign with veterans organizations.
In fact a fund-raising campaign had been considered before Harris, to his credit, proposed that the city take responsibility for the project after decades of irresponsible buck-passing between the city and state. Raising the required funds without further support from the city seems entirely possible, but shouldn't be necessary. This is a public facility and deserves public financing.
Despite the continuing opposition by a group comprised mainly of users of the adjoining Kaimana Beach who see the Natatorium as a threat to their own use of the beach, the fact that all parts of the 73-year-old facility except the pool have been restored makes full restoration likely if not inevitable.
The real point of the Natatorium is of course the pool. To stop at partial restoration, leaving the pool unusable, would be absurd. Even our densest politicians ought to be able to figure that out.
Clinton disbarment
THE aftershocks of the political earthquake that was the Clinton sex scandal continue to reverberate. The president's attempts to put the controversy behind him were frustrated when a committee overseeing the practice of law in Arkansas recommended that he be disbarred.
The committee cited Clinton's "serious misconduct" as grounds for disbarment, specifically the fact that he lied under oath in a deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case by denying he had a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The president says he will fight the recommendation, which his advisers contend is excessively punitive and unfair.
Disbarment would be a humiliation rather than a practical problem as Clinton is unlikely to want to practice law after leaving the White House. But it is a humiliation that he naturally would like to avoid. If he escapes disbarment, a reprimand can be expected; he deserves at least that. In any case, the recommendation resurrects the scandal that Clinton has been trying hard to make the public forget.
Meanwhile one of the president's chief tormentors, Linda Tripp, whose taping of Monica Lewinsky led to the scandal, got some good news. Prosecutors in Maryland announced that they were dropping charges of illegal wiretapping against Tripp. The state law, which is seldom used, forbids taping phone conversations without the other party's consent.
The prosecutors said they were left with no case after a judge barred testimony by Lewinsky on grounds that it was not credible. They had to build a case that was not based on evidence Tripp gave to independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office while under a federal grant of immunity.
Tripp accused the state of "selective prosecution" but said she was gratified that the grant of immunity "finally provided the protection it promised."
On top of that, the Defense Department's inspector general issued a finding that two Pentagon employees violated Tripp's privacy by making public details from her confidential personnel file.
The information concerned Tripp's arrest for shoplifting in 1969 when she was a teen-ager. She claimed at the time that the items were planted in her handbag by friends as a prank; the case was resolved in a plea bargain.
Disclosure of this information appeared to be part of a crude administration attempt to discredit Tripp. She is suing the federal government over the incident and the inspector general's report probably strengthens her case.
Clinton escaped conviction by the Senate on the impeachment charges brought by the House of Representatives. But the fallout from that battle continues -- and may outlast his presidency.
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
