RedState: Sen. Murkowski betrays conservatives on Hawaiian bill

Opinion | Recognition

Monday, July 19, 2010

"Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has done it again. Earlier this week we learned that Lisa Murkowski opposes the repeal of ObamaCare. RS Insider has been informed that there is a strong push by Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to pass S. 1011, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, also known as the “Akaka Bill,” this year with the active support of Senator Murkowski. The bill, sponsored by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), sets up an unconstitutional race based separate government entity for Native Hawaiians The lone Republican co-sponsor is none other than Senator Lisa Murkowski. This is the same Lisa Murkowski who was elected Vice Chairwoman of the whole Republican Conference in June of last year and is supposed to lead against terrible liberal ideas — not for them.

Over the past week the left has slandered the Tea Party movement with charges of racism. News has broken that the New Black Panther Movement has been given preferential treatment by lawyers at the Justice Department. The Akaka Bill will further inflame racial separatism and divide the nation.

This bill enables fully assimilated ”aboriginal” people to withdraw from the jurisdiction of Hawaii into an ethnic enclave with its own government powers and immunities. Supporters of this idea argue that it enables the ethnically “Hawaiian” (those with a single drop of “aboriginal” blood) to have their own government. Conservatives argue that this bill is unconstitutional and promotes racial separatism.

Another faction of opposition to the idea are Native Hawaiians who don’t like the bill for some different reasons. Native Hawaiians who support Native Hawaiian separatism and others who mistrust federal bureaucrats oppose this bill, because the legislation empowers the Office of Native Hawaiian Affairs, housed in the Department of U.S. Interior, to play a significant role in governing them. Most Native Hawaiians just want to be left alone by the federal government and they don’t trust Washington, D.C. to protect Native Hawaiian’s proud history and heritage. They further argue that the federal government wants to buy up Hawaiian lands in the name of protecting Native Hawaiians. These two camps have legitimate concerns."

Get the Story:
Senator Lisa Murkowski Sells Out Conservatives — Again (Red State 7/17)

Native Hawaiian Bill:
H.R.862 | S.381