It was Abercrombie’s call, not Inouye’s, so he made it

The adage that you can’t take it with you applies to political power as well as material wealth.

That’s why the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was misguided in trying to control the succession to his Senate seat from the grave, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie was right to reserve the critical decision for the living.

Inouye put Abercrombie on the spot with a "last wish"that the governor give his seat to U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, 61.

Abercrombie respectfully declined and appointed his 40-year-old lieutenant governor, Brian Schatz, who was nominated by the Democratic Party along with Hana­busa and Esther Kia‘aina.

The governor argued persuasively that it’s time for Hawaii to start passing power to ayounger generation ofpolitical leadership.

Inouye was Hawaii’s greatest leader of the statehood era, and his contributions will be appreciated even more as time passes.

But his manipulations to control the succession to his Senate seat and that of retiring Sen. Daniel Akaka brought Hawaii to a bad place.

He and Akaka both clung to power until 88, with the predictable result that both are gone at the same time and Hawaii’s seniority — the main currency of the Senate — abruptly plunged from 72 years to zero.

As capable as Hanabusa is, appointing a 61-year-old to join 65-year-old Sen.-elect Mazie Hirono, who won Akaka’s seat with Inouye’s backing, made no sense.

Two freshmen in their 60s wouldn’t have enough productive years left to build real seniority.

It would set us up for an eventual repeat of the current scenario of two aging senators departing close together, leaving us to start over yetagain with zero seniority.

Schatz is about the same age Inouye was when he started in the Senate and has pledged to make senatorial service his life’s work if voters approve.

He potentially could amass the same kind of seniority — decades’ worth — that made Inouye so powerful an advocate for Hawaii in Washington.

Schatz, like Inouye in his time, is one of Hawaii’s brightest young leaders and has meticulously prepared himself for high office.

He knows the legislative ropes from four terms in the state House and has ably workedwith national and foreign leaders as Abercrombie’s point man on federal funding, the APEC conference and clean energy.

Schatz has solid ties to the White House as an early supporter of Barack Obama for president and a leading organizer of Obama’s Hawaii campaign.

Abercrombie could pay a political price for disregarding Inouye’s wishes if the formidable Hanabusa runs for governor against him in 2014 backed by Inouye loyalists.

But he did the right thing for Hawaii’s future, and it took guts; when accounts are settled on his time as governor, this will go down as one of his finer moments.

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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.