Todd, you've said that my opinion is ridiculous yet the only support you offer for this is that 'virtually every president... has used the Act to protect public lands… I should note that the proposed expansion area is not public land.  It's open ocean 50-200 miles from land.  And just because the Act has been invoked before doesn't mean that doing so in this case is appropriate or justified and certainly doesn’t render my opinion ridiculous.  Of course you’re entitled to you opinion though.
You say the only group opposed is a handful of longliners.  This is an inaccurate statement.  Plenty of scientists, local Hawaiian groups, non-commercial fishers and others stand in opposition.  Besides, the expansion of the monument shouldn't be some kind of "battle of the bands" where the side with the loudest cheers, most signatures, bumper stickers, and t-shirts wins.  That is indeed a dangerous precedent to set when managing marine resources.