Oh Lord! Is this to be our Lott?
(Voting for the lesser good)

Sorely vexed at Talk Radio’s massive campaign against the Immigration Bill, Senator Trent Lott blurted out. “Talk Radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.” Now, there he goes again. Who does he think he is? Rosie O’Donnell?

.Hey! Lott is lucky to be still in the Senate fold after committing a major gaffe when celebrating Senator Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday.

During the old senator’s birthday party, Trent Lott rose to proclaim his regret that Thurmond had not been elected president. Thurmond was an unreconstructed southern bigot. It was probably a friend’s way of making his old buddy feel better, but, few took it that way. The aftershock of Lott’s earth shaking proclamation rippled into the main stream media.

Ordinarily, George Bush would have rushed to the support of a major Republican, but he didn’t like Lott, because when Bush was elected, Lott blurted out, “Just because George Bush has been elected president doesn’t mean he can come to Washington and run the Senate”.  When Lott took heat for the Thurmond tribute, Bush let him dangle.

A dangling Lott was cut loose from his job as Senate Majority Leader in 2002, but now, like Damien in the movie, “Omen 111,” He’s baaack as Senate Minority Leader.

I have no fear that Rush, Sean, Roger, Lars, Rollye, George, Hugh, Neal, and all those spirited conservative talkers can take care of themselves. Besides, Lott has already begun to back-pedal from his ominous threat to talk radio.

My personal beef with him stems from his trashing one of the most virtuous bills ever to be introduced into the Senate, a bill to repeal the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, a repeal that would have opened up thousands of jobs, and generated hundreds of millions of dollars to 20 U.S. ports, including my home town, San Diego.

This 120 year old Act was originally enacted to force Canadian ferries, when they came across the Great Lakes to an American port, to return to Canada after a single landing here, rather than be free to stay on this side, plying up and down our side of the Lakes siphoning business away from fledgling American ferries.

The Act protected American ferries for decades, but now, there is a turnaround that is not fair play. Cruise liners are forced to disembark in a foreign port after making one U.S. stop. Here’s how it applies to San Diego…

THE PASSENGER VESSEL SERVICES ACT OF 1886

(Not to be confused with The Jones Act that involves cargo)

This Act allows only ships, either built in the U.S or sailing under a U.S. Flag, to carry passengers between two U.S. ports. If a foreign vessel, which is most of them, stops in Seattle, or San Francisco or L.A, it can’t stop in San Diego without first visiting a foreign port.

When Senator John McCain visited my San Diego KPOP Radio Show in mid-1999, I described to him the hardships endured by travelers, (mostly elderly) who cannot end their cruises in San Diego because of this archaic Act, who, instead, have to disembark in Ensenada and endure a grueling four hour bus trip back to the states.

McCain expressed personal concern for the travelers, and vowed to return to Washington and remedy this injustice as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

He introduced a bill, SR 1556, designed to repeal the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, an action that would have allowed cruise liners to end their cruises in San Diego instead of Ensenada. Then, he left Washington to run for the presidency.

In his absence, lawmakers, influenced by surrogate lobbyists for the ship builders and the AMO, (American Maritime Officers’ Union) hijacked this simple bill that would have repealed The PVSA of 1886 and morphed it into one requiring foreign cruise lines to build two ships in the U.S, man their ships with American crews, and re-flag the ships to the U.S. before being allowed to end cruises in domestic ports after visiting another domestic port.

When McCain introduced the simple repeal Bill, the blood was on the water. The mere presence of this impending bill, updated to S 127, inspired Senators Trent Lott (R Miss) and Daniel Inouye (R Haw) to team up to enrich their respective constituencies.

It was Senator Lott, then majority leader of the senate, who injected the ship building amendment into S 127 mandating that foreign cruise lines build two ships in this country before being allowed to end their cruises in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco or other U.S. ports. In other words, Lott was hijacking the repeal, and holding it hostage. It is not a coincidence that Mississippi, Lott’s home state, contains a large ship building yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Next, Senator Daniel Inouye (R Hawaii) signed on to the repeal of the PVSA of 1886 after consulting with Sam Zell, his principal supporter and chairman of American Classic Voyages in Hawaii. Result: Inouye could only vote for the repeal if the new law made American Classic Voyages the sole Cruise Line in Hawaii for 30 years.

Trent Lott agreed to help Inouye score the 30 year Hawaiian monopoly in return for American Classic Voyage’s building two liners at Pascagoula.

There was another obstacle. American Classic Voyages did not have the $440 million dollars that it took to build ships domestically, each costing 150 million dollars more than building a ship overseas.

Trent Lott agreed to intercede in Inouye’s behalf, securing a low interest loan for American Classic Voyages from the Maritime Administration. Now, American Classic Voyages would build the two ships in Pascagoula.

Then, Lott. got Bushwhacked. President Bush announced his intent to roll the Maritime Administration into another agency, and cancel all government-subsidized domestic ship building loans.

News of the president’s decision to knock out loan subsidies sank American Classic Voyages. They declared bankruptcy, leaving the two unfinished cruise liners high and dry in the Pascagoula shipyard.

The two unfinished cruise liners. languished over a year before Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) finally bought them. Ironically, NCL dealt Lott another blow. Once they bought the two unfinished liners, they declined to work on them at the Pascagoula shipyard, and sent them to a cheaper foreign shipyard to save money on the final construction.

Inouye then end-ran his colleague, Lott, and swung an Exemption from the PVSA to apply solely to Hawaii, wrapping it into an important Appropriations Bill, eliminating a mandatory 1800 mile total swing during the inter-island cruises, to and from Fanning Island, belonging to the Kiribati Republic, thereby satisfying the foreign port requirement.

John McCain furiously attacked Inouye for deserting the ship, and helplessly watched while the simple PVSA repeal sank. I do not fault Inouye, for this creative thinking. The repeal was dead in the water, anyway.

It was a real eye opener for me when I saw that Congress worked like this.

Apparently, none of them judged the simple Repeal on its merits. They were willing to slather it with self serving amendments that would make them look good to their Lobbies, even if it meant distorting the original bill beyond recognition.

Based on history, Lott knew that Cruise companies will not spend the extra 150 million dollars to build a liner in this country, instead of overseas. The Cruise companies had thrived under the old system of diverting their trips to foreign ports for decades. Lott was grandstanding to his Pascagoula ship builders at the expense of the Greater Good.

Ensenada?,….San Diego? It didn’t matter to Cruise companies where they landed. The victims in this macabre dance were the travelers.

Next week, I will describe what happened next when I approached local federal lawmakers asking them to salvage the project.

My plan was to describe to the Congressmen the local benefits (Greater Good) of repealing this Act: that the City of San Diego, with a nearly bankrupt economy, stood to bring in million of new dollars, that repeal of PVSA of 1886 would result in the creation of hundreds of port jobs, and the filling of many extra hotel rooms with a resultant vast revenue from room taxes.

I would appeal to our Congressmen’s humanitarian instincts, to put aside their loyalties to the Lobbyists for the Greater Good, and come to the rescue of the travelers, many of them America’s Finest Generation, stranded in Ensenada, forced to handle their own baggage or pay $20.00 per bag to Mexicans to schlep it to the bus, and finally, to take the long ride to the border, and endure the Inquisition of the Customs inspection.

It got to me personally. I resolved to beg the lawmakers, from the depths of my soul, to retire the PVSA.

Continued next week



“What are we going to do about Senator Trent Lott?

…….Rush Limbaugh


About last week’s tribute to Jerry Coleman…….

“Hare,
The Jerry Coleman stuff is the best I've ever read.
Anytime. Anyplace” …….…Claude Hall.
(Former Editor, Billboard Magazine, Author, College Professor)

“Harry, you captured our love for Jerry.”….. Roger Hedgecock
(Rush’s favorite sub)