First things first: Happy Birthday to my sister, Bonnie!
The ritual invocation that launches each floor session of Hawaii’s House of Representatives is usually a saccharine moment quickly forgotten.
Not so last week when Rep. Tom Brower (Waikiki-Ala Moana) surprised everyone with a totally unexpected performance that you’ve got to see. He describes it simply as “233 words in a rhyme-spoken word style“. You’ll probably want to read the text and view the video. Have fun!
And Tuesday’s floor fight over an ethics bill believed by many to have unfairly targeted Rep. Josh Green for his advocacy of medical tort reform drew an email comment from Republican Rep. Gene Ward that went to all House offices:
Aloha Members,
As a former quarterback and co-captain of a championship football team, I’ve often said after a good floor debate that it’s as vigorous as a good football game!However, today (tonight) as we left the stadium, we left an injured player on the field.
That’s not supposed to be the way the game ends; all the injured are attended to and play doesn’t resume until the injured player is brought off the field.
Okay, the football analogy may end here, but the rules of the game of life of fairness, justice, and even mercy still apply.
Let’s work together in Conference Committee to see that we all get back on the same team, injured or otherwise.
Aloha,
Gene
Derrick DePledge nailed the politics of this situation in an entry yesterday on the Advertiser’s Capitol Notebook blog, with some House insiders adding insightful comments which should not be missed.
One message is clear. Don’t mess with HMSA and the trial lawyers if it’s clear you don’t have the votes to get something passed, and think twice before setting up a colleague for a spot on the political hot seat. This makes for bad feelings in an election year, never a good inside strategy no matter how worthy you consider your issue.
Beyond that message is a useful political lesson. Stategies appropriate for “outside lobbying” are not generally the best strategies for “inside lobbying”, and that’s why organizations with sufficient resources will tackle an issue with a dual strategy, a campaign to push their message out to the public and some quiet lobbyists to work the hallways of the capitol who can disavow the public clamor and try to find knit together a viable political coalition to get something passed.
Outside lobbying is the process of creating public awareness and understanding of an issue and then generating a demand in the public for action, or at least the perception that the public wants action. Finessing that into legislative success requires a different approach and a different set of skills.
Rep. Green, according to those insider comments, is getting sent the message that it rarely works for one person play both rabble-rousing advocate and inside crafter of a legislative coalition. Put it another way, taking strong public stands to get attention while you’re running for office can backfire when you’re actually on the job in the legislative setting. There are too many toes to be stepped on in those corridors of power.
And now for a quick calming closeup look at the ocean in Kaaawa, taken a few days ago as we walked back along the beach and before the current blanket of volcanic haze blew in to squelch the colors of ocean and sky.
You’re on point, I think, about the “inside-outside” dynamic. From what I can see, many legislators play the outside approach; that is, play to the crowd particularly if they are running for a bigger office. Witness Ed Case when he was in the House. Case was ineffective as a policymaker but very effective in portraying himself as a “change agent.” And it paid off for him.
I don’t know Green but it seems that this is his strategy as well. Take on HMSA and seem like the champion of the little guy. Take on the plaintiff attorneys and show everyone that you are not beholden to special interests.
But if you do it in a way that ticks off colleagues and paints the issue as a good guy vs. bad guy battle (and, of course, you’re the good guy), it is almost impossible to get something meaningful done.
On the other hand, there are a handful of legislators who toil away on policy issues and deliver results without aggressively seeking the limelight.
I guess it depends on why legislators believe they are in office.
The part of this controversy around malpractice insurance premiums is more complicated and significant than made it into print. Basically, the arguments made for it last session, that Texas is the overwhelming success story for “reform,” turned out to be false. At the same time, the Hawaii Medical Association and the national AMA put huge resource$ into making something happen here in Hawaii.
With no evidence that the proposed bill would make any difference at all here (where the Insurance Commissioner can’t even regulate medical malpractice premiums), the fight might have simply died out for the year.
I’m pretty sure that if Rep. Waters had taken up the bill it would have died anyway. I know this deserves some elaboration so I’ll have to do that, but for now, with doctors NOT flocking to rural areas of Texas, Rep. Green, whom I greatly admire, might have better packed it in for the duration. Of course, life is complicated, and what would his supporters think if he did that? Suppose I am wrong and he is right? Anyway he put up a vigorous fight. For better or for worse.
Behind this please understand that we need desperately to solve the problem of fleeing medical specialists in Hawaii’s rural areas. Rep. Dr. Green was trying to do that, and cannot be blamed for using his best and highly educated judgment to spare Hawaii from an impending crisis. There is not one person in the Legislature who sees the potential crisis as clearly as does Dr. Green.
Whether he was right or wrong in this instance, there should be no legislative vendetta against him. Better to give Rep. Green a medal for trying to do what the rest of the Legislature is largely neglecting, that is, bring adequate medical care to every citizen of Hawaii despite overwhelming forces (economic, political, HMSA) against him.