"The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 #3"
 

There is an old jock joke that goes, “I went to the market and bought a package of chicken parts and brought them home and put them together and…….. they wouldn’t fly.”

There is a parallel in Congress. So many amendments are slathered onto to a single bill that it won’t fly. when they put it together. They often know it will smother the bill, but they do it anyway to impress their supporters, like a pet cat brings in a rat it killed to get praise from mommy and daddy.

This is what happened to the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886. Over a period of many years, every time this simple bill to repeal the Act was submitted it was plucked clean...

Please read the two prior chapters before tackling this one. You can find them in the Happy Hare archives in the RDN Special Contributors.

I have explained how, while doing a mid-day weekend show on KPOP radio, I recruited Senator John McCain to bring about the repeal of this miserable Act that deprived San Diego and 19 other domestic ports of many millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

It was 1999, the year that McCain tossed his hat into the ring for the 2000 presidential election. I am sure he thought this was a golden opportunity to score big by repealing this ridiculous old Act.

Trent Lott “amended” the simple repeal introduced by McCain. His amendment stipulated that if we liberate foreign lines to sail freely from U.S port to U.S. port, the cruise company involved will first have to build two ships in this country, despite their costing $150,000,000 more to build each ship domestically.

Senator Diane Feinstein pledged her support on the condition that the cruise liners hire only American crews, like that pet cat proudly laying the amendment at the feet of the National Maritime Officers’ Union. That is my suspicion. I smell a rat.

Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii got into the scrum by pledging to build two ships at Lott’s home shipyard in Pascagoula if Lott would snare Inouye’s principal supporter, Sam Zell, a cheap government loan in order to afford building them.

Zell owned two ancient cruise liners that were used for the inter-island trips. He not only wanted a subsidy in building the two new ships, but a 30 year inter-island cruise monopoly in Hawaii for his company, American Classic Voyages. That amendment was crammed into the Bill.

Construction on the two ships began in Pascagoula, only to have the low interest government loan jiggered by Lott for the ship construction cancelled by President Bush, Lott’s nemesis. American Classic Voyages went bankrupt, leaving the two unfinished ships high and dry.

After nearly a year of inactivity, Norwegian Cruse Lines rescued Inouye, and bought the two unfinished liners in Pascagoula. NCL then removed them from Lott’s shipyard and towed them to Europe for cheaper completion.

Deflowered by Bush’s below the Beltway tactics against him, Senator McCain dropped out of the 2000 presidential race, and also dropped his efforts to repeal the PVSA of 1886.

I went local after this. All politics is local, isn’t it?

Fast forwarding, I told you last week how I struck out in my efforts to secure San Diego Congressman Randy “Duke”: Cunningham’s help, that he could not quite grasp what the “Act” was about, as described last week in my encounter with him.I dropped him, and approached Darrel Issa.

Local Congressman Darrel Issa actually told me that he had seen what happened to McCain and figured he couldn’t do any better. Next?

Brian Bilbray might have lost his election in 2000 because he ducked the issue so clumsily when he was on my KPOP show.

In a cheap petition for pity, I described to him on- the-air the indignities suffered by the thousands of travelers and the loss of money by the city and how the bill had been trashed by major players in the senate, Instead of commiserating with me and my listeners, he dismissed it by stating, ”Harry, this is how things are done in Washington” That one callous statement may have cost him the 2000 election.

All I needed was one legislator to get it rolling, then pray for the best.

My one remaining hope was the newly elected Susan Davis, who had defeated Bilbray. She was manic on the phone when I called her for support.

Things looked great. There were thousands of cruise trippers in San Diego who related directly to what I was doing and there was a dazzling rippling effect My show doubled in listenership and became #1 45+ and #1 TSL in the entire year 2000 Arbitron., despite my trashing of the tight and bright Pop Standards format.

My listeners were fired up from being empowered. I framed it on the air like it was a matter of “us against them” in Washington. You know…like you saw recently with Roger Hedgecock of KOGO, John and Ken at KFI and dozens of other talk show hosts who roused the country against illegal immigration by going to Washington with hundreds of followers, and storming the battements of the lawmakers.

I reasoned that because newly elected Susan Davis’ district straddled the harbor, she would “get it” when we met. Her turf was where the cruise liners docked. In 2000, it was a rare sight to see even one liner berthed at the foot of Broadway which I envisioned would soon be burgeoning with liners, thanks to Davis.

I had spoken to her on the phone the week before and she sounded like what I wanted was “nothing.” I was pumped.

I sauntered into her office, and announced that, “Hare is here.” The receptionist solemnly told me to have a seat, which I “had” for almost an hour. Finally, I was told that “Congresswoman Davis will see you now.”

Not one to borrow trouble. I strode into her office and greeted her with aplomb. Davis is a handsome brunette in her forties, with a nice smile which she flashed once, then kept in check after she shook my hand.

Seated at her right were three young female aides, who stared starkly at me like a tree full of owls. I was seated at the apex of their collective scrutiny. This time, business-like, Congresswoman Davis asked me about the PVSA of 1886 like she had never heard of it. It was like I was a predetermined loser standing in front of Simon Cowell on “Idol.”

I plowed through the dirge of describing the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, how foreign cruise liners can’t make more than one domestic stop on a trip, then have to go to a foreign port.

Realizing how barely understandable this might be to her, I vainly attempted to dramatize how unjust to the passengers and costly to the city it was, at the risk of being “on too long,” the worst thing one can do when speechifying.

Ms Davis saved me by raising her hand, not because she was asking permission to speak, but because she had heard enough and got the picture.

She remained silent for a moment, then spoke. “I do know about the Act. It is a terrible thing to inflict on our San Diego travelers and, you re right. The city is losing a lot of money, but there is nothing to be done about it.”

I waited for her to continue, but she simply sat there quietly, eyes cast downward, like the meeting was over and the only thing to for me to do was to rise and back out with a frozen smile.

The time had come for boldness. “Why isn’t there something to be done about it?” I demanded. “It is a terrible law. And you are the one who can fix it, because there are thousands of voters in your district looking to you for help.”

She was expressionless for a moment, saying nothing. Then I saw a faint smile begin to play on her lips. It was neither an amused smile nor a sad smile, more of a Mona Lisa cryptic smile, or maybe just a gas pain. It has occurred to me that Mona Lisa’s cryptic smile might actually be a gas pain, but I veer.

I broke the bizarre silence, broaching the unspoken agendum. I heard my self saying, “Ms Davis, you appeared to be so optimistic last week when we spoke. Has something happened?”

Her smile vanished and she said words to the effect, “There are people who oppose this and they will not change their minds.” Not the exact words because I did not record the visit, but I have reason to believe that she did record it.

I tried to fill the void. “Can’t you appeal to their sense of fairness? It is obvious that the cruise companies are not going to bend to demands to build two ships in this country or man their ships with American crews.”


I paid it off with, “It’s a stand-off where no one wins.” I repeated for emphasis, “Your campaign supporters would be heroes if they allowed this to get passed.“

She did not speak, but shrugged and shook her head no., That was when I suspected that my lofty goals were not going to be reached. I resisted telling her that her first duty was to vote for the greater good, but by this time I had a pretty good idea that, as Brian Bilbray had told me, “This was the way things are done in Washington.”

I had violated my first rule of advocacy: never argue with a person who is paid to say no.

Having spent an entire year of pushing it on the air and talking to decision makers, there was nothing to show for it. I walked into the Clear Channel building the following day, and met a high ranking C.C. friend in the hall.

“I am dropping the PVSA campaign “I told him. ”I’ve run out of soap. I can’t get any of our esteemed Washington lawmakers roused to do anything about it.”

He smiled and said, “It’s just as well I was beginning to be concerned for our Mexican Licensees.”

It had not even occurred to me that the 5 Mexican Licensees would be “irked” at my attempts to divert the Ensenada port business to San Diego.

My Clear Channel chum smiled like he knew I was clueless. Looking back, it was obvious that C.C. had been on the verge of pouncing on me to back off of what they regarded as a volatile issue, a threat to their relations with their Mexican partners.

Viewed ethically, they were right. They were paying my salary and that would have been enough for me to “pass” on the issue before it even got started. Yet, my friend had stood by and watched me for a year, like a ref at a hockey match, while I punched myself out.

It was a moot point, anyway. Soon after, Clear Channel was ordered by the FCC to spin off the 5 Mexican stations.

Fast forward to 2004, when I received a call from Rita Vandergaw, one of the top figures at the San Diego Port Authority.

I was still not over the pounding I took trying to get the pesky PVSA of 1886 repealed, and launched into a post mortem of my failed efforts when Ms. Vandergaw cut me off.

”Harry, the Port Authority is going to declare “Happy Hare Harbor Day in honor of your service to the community.“

“Why, Rita?” I protested. “I’m grateful, but my campaign was a turkey.”

She laughed and said, “Any more and we couldn’t handle the business that you helped bring in. Hare, you got this thing started and people who should have been devoting more energy to it all along began to figure out ways to stimulate business in the Port, and things took care of themselves.

She then reeled off dollar amounts that the Port had begun to bring in that were staggering, and kept multiplying after I began pushing the issue.

She told me that Royal Caribbean had reconfigured their trips so that a lot of their ships have moved here.’ The Monarch of the Seas ‘ (a leviathan) is “port of calling” here. That’s millions of dollars a day. “Harry, whatever you do,” She said, “stop trying to repeal the PVSA. We can’t handle any more.”

.When Randy “Duke" Cunningham was blown out of Congress as a result of his corruption, there was a special election to replace him. It was won by Brian Bilbray who didn’t even live in the 51st District.

This conservative district elected him, not because they thought he was a great statesman, but because he ran on a platform they couldn’t resist, to vote against the Immigration bill.

That is the way things are done in Washington.

In September 2004, I stood before an elite number of local dignitaries aboard the passenger liner Ryndam at a luncheon honoring me for my efforts in the cruise crusade. I rose and emotionally thanked them for the distinct honor, but confessed that my best work often back-fired to good end, a sort of Divine Intervention.

I described to them the infamous crusade in which I had campaigned to bring the Pandas to this country. I contacted China and, amazingly, they sent us two Pandas, only, I had overlooked asking them to send the Pandas to San Diego. Instead, the Chinese government very properly sent them to the Washington zoo.


PMS: Program Managers’ Syndrome:

Why do media people call it “Oldies Radio” when most of its core listeners want to consider themselves young?

The answer next week ...