Update (Monday):Sen Dan Akaka has emerged from his polite reticence to announce he, too, is endorsing Hawaii-born Barak Obama for president. He made the announcement Monday, which means all four high-profile elected superdelegates from Hawaii have made their choice. Three are for Obama while one, Sen, Daniel Inouye, remains loyal to Hillary Clinton.

Akaka said he is convinced Obama is the man to end the “plague” of partisan politics in America.

Also, while it didn’t make as big a news splash, Obama gained yet another superdelegate from Hawaii Monday when National Committeewoman Dolly Strazar also announced her vote for Obama. In a statement, Strazar said that while she held out on an uncommited stance as long as she could, he concluded it was time for the party to “pull together behind a single candidate.”

Strazar said she also likes the fact that Obama, who grew up in the Islands, instinctively knows the importance of “getting along” in a multicultural setting.These have been stressful days for Strazar, who has been fielding regular calls from both the Obama and Clinton camps as they scoured the nation for superdelegate votes.

Here’s what we said earlier on the superdelegate hunt in Hawaii: (more…)

So there I was talking about how tax credits are an easy path for lawmakers to take, since they generally please the specific while causing little direct pain to the general. For that reason, I said, they are hard to repeal and easy to stick into the tax code.

Well, who would know that lawmakers have — at least on paper — actually made a stab at rationalizing the ever-growing list of exemptions to our excise tax code! A bill, SB2829, “sunsets” or kills off tax credits in batches between now and 2012.

But wait a minute. (more…)

Our two Democratic senators, Daniel K. Inouye and Dan Akaka, generally vote along he same lines. While Akaka gets slightly higher ratings from “liberal” groups, there is rarely much difference between the two on big policy matters.

But a story out of Washington by Dennis Camire  the other day on proposals for a new GI Bill suggests the two may be on different wavelengths on this important matter.

The proposed bill would boost benefits for currently serving men and women, so more could get into, and finish, college once they complete their service. It is only a matter of fairness says the bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Jim Webb.

College costs are soaring while the GI bill payment scheme is stuck in amber.

Inouye, like Webb a combat veteran, is a co-sponsor of the bill.

But Akaka, who served during World War II and actually used the GI Bill to go to the UH, is not so sure.

The extra benefits, he notes, will be very expensive and must be balanced against the military’s need for recruitment and — most importantly — retention.

What this means is that if the GI education benefits are too rich, it might entice people to leave the service just when the military is scratching hard to come up with enough experienced officers and NCOs.

What you see here is two senators serving, in this case, somewhat different masters. Inouye is thinking directly of military veterans and their educational future. Akaka is concerned about that, but as Chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, he also has to think about the overall health of the Veterans Administration and the military itself.

It will be interesting to see how this one is worked out.