Over the past several months, the Washington, D.C.-based lawyer has become something of a household name in the islands, writing commentaries and lobbying local officials to oppose the Akaka bill. Working as an "adviser" to the Grassroots Institute of Hawai'i, Fein's primary soapbox is hawaiireporter.com, a blog whose "President and Editor" is the right-wing gadfly Malia Zimmerman. On the website, Fein has detailed his numerous critiques of the bill, most of which rest on this assumption: the generally accepted history of Hawai'i is not just slightly misinformed but utterly wrong.

Fein argues that we've gotten just about everything backwards—that native Hawaiians never suffered from foreign takeover of their homelands, that the U.S. had nothing to do with the overthrown of Queen Lili'uokalani, that Hawaiians signed away whatever sovereignty they had in 1959 during the statehood plebiscite, that Hawaiians were never discriminated against, taken advantage of or in any other way treated unfairly, and that native Hawaiians today have every advantage available to everyone else.

Though he did not respond to attempts to reach him for this story, Fein's stated goal is to uphold liberty and equality and to stave off any hint of racial discrimination. A look at his career, however, paints a different picture.

With the Hawaiian flag flying upside down in a show of distress as the rains fell, the so-called "celebration" of 46 years of statehood for the islands on Friday was more of a somber gray than red, white and blue.

"For me, I love America, and I love Hawaii," said Sidney Piosalan, a veteran of the first Gulf War, who served as master of ceremonies and unexpectedly found himself on the verge of breaking down. "My family comes from here. But when I was on a (military) ship, I felt hurt because my ship shot at Kahoolawe."

It was those mixed emotions, made even more intense by the recent federal court ruling against Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy, that had the sparse crowd on the lanai of the War Memorial Complex less than exuberant about commemorating the day that Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state in 1959. There almost seemed to be more voices singing "Hawaii Pono'i," the national anthem for the Hawaiian kingdom before its overthrow in 1893, than for "The Star Spangled Banner."
[...]
With Native Hawaiian cultural specialist Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr. tapped to give the keynote address, no one anticipated a flowery speech filled with the advantages of being part of America. Cloaked in a red kihei, Maxwell recalled the day when he heard the news that the territory of Hawaii was now a state.

"My father broke down in tears and said, 'We have lost Hawaii forever as we know it, and it will never be the same,' " said Maxwell.

He then began to recite a list of some of the changes that have taken place since statehood...
[...]
Afterwards, Piosalan was asked why Maxwell, long on the front lines for Hawaiian rights, was selected as the main speaker.

"He told me how his father felt bad when Hawaii became a state, and I remembered how bad I felt when I was on that ship and we shot at Kahoolawe," he said. "I'm torn between both (feelings for America and Hawaii). That's how I'm connected to Charlie. I believe in America, it's the greatest country, but there are issues with statehood."

Maxwell said the United States needs to not only acknowledge the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, but to make restitution and recognize a sovereign Hawaiian nation.