Doc Hastings: “the underlying legislation, offered in good faith by my friend and colleague from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie), would create…”

“the underlying legislation, offered in good faith by my friend and colleague from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie), would create a process, and I want to emphasize ``process,'' because that is what this is, for establishing and recognizing a Native Hawaiian government entity that would be empowered to act on behalf of its members with the State and Federal Government. However, Mr. Speaker, as the Wall Street Journal noted in 2005, the practical effect of granting this status to self-identified Native Hawaiians would be to allow this new class of American citizens to declare, and I quote again from the Wall Street Journal, ``complete legal and territorial independence from the United States and the establishment of a Hawaiian nation-state.'' Mr. Speaker, before this statement is dismissed out of hand as a completely unbelievable statement dreamed up by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, I should mention that they were not the ones that were making this claim. They were merely reporting on a statement made by the State Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which first acknowledged this fact.”