LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED

Coming tomorrow: KPD Blue Chapter 4- Kaua`i Style

LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED: It’s been a rough week for our governor with the local press ridiculing her speech introducing the book-banning, wacko Alaskan governor BS artist and would-be-in-a-parallel-universe Vice President Sarah Palin at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, MN.

Now in all honesty we might have said a few disparaging words about- and so are not exactly waiting by the phone for an appointment to an advisory board from- Linda “one of the Stepford Wives” Lingle, as our brother “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” characterized her at the 2004 Republican Convention.

But her suck-up to the right-wing-nut fringe was apparently worthy of a slew of mocking and scornful print pieces even from former supporters.

Honolulu Advertiser columnist, Kauai’s own Lee Cataluna, noted her stilted delivery which was bizarrely deliberate even for the emotionless, humorless, supposedly centrist GOP leader in touting the bible-thumping cross between Tina Fey and the pregnant cop in “Fargo” saying:

Who was that person who introduced Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night? She looked like Linda Lingle, had that same Paulie Walnuts hairdo Lingle has these days. She was introduced as Linda Lingle, but she didn't sound like Linda Lingle at all.

She ... spoke ... soooooo ... slowly. It took her over 17 minutes to get through a speech that was roughly 1,200 words. That's 3 1/2 pages double-spaced. You can clip through that in five minutes if you pause a lot and have a coughing fit. Lingle is a deliberate speaker, but she's also a facile speaker and this performance was way off. Sure, stop and wait for the wild applause, but the applause wasn't THAT wild.

But the real meat of the “what-the-heck-were-you-thinking” commentary was courtesy of oft-times Lingle apologist Dave Shapiro who, in his regular Wednesday Honolulu Advertiser column, opined:

Whenever Gov. Linda Lingle tries to inflate her importance in national leadership, as she’s done this week at the Republican National Convention, it causes me to reflect on what little leadership she’s provided at home during her six years in Hawai’i’s top job...

At the GOP convention this week, Lingle has taken on a major role in selling Palin as qualified to assume the presidency after serving as mayor of a town of about 7,000 and two years as governor of one of our least populous states...

This presidential year, she'll again spend a lot of time on the Mainland campaigning for McCain, but it won't make much difference in Hawai'i legislative races; the local GOP she leads isn't even fielding candidates for 22 of the 51 House seats or six of the 12 Senate seats up this year....

Lingle's national party activity suggests that Washington is exactly where her personal political radar is pointing — presumably toward the U.S. Senate as Hawai'i's octogenarian Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka near retirement.

The only question seems to be whether she'll take the seemingly suicidal step of running against the iconic Inouye if he follows through with plans to seek another term in 2010 or wait until 2012 and duke it out with Ed Case and Mufi Hannemann for Akaka's seat.

Or she can hold out for vice president on the next Republican ticket.

It’s getting pretty obvious that Lingle hasn’t got a prayer of even getting elected Maui dog catcher after her six year royal reign of taking cronyism, misplaced loyalty, political parsing and partisan pugnaciousness to a level unimagined by the past Democratic despots like former Hawai`i governors Waihe`e and Cayetano.

Even her devoted minions have ditched her if a letter in today’s Star Bulletin is indicative of her supporter’s current sentiment.

John Cheever of Honolulu writes

Did Lingle reveal true colors in GOP speech?

I used to feel sorry for Gov. Linda Lingle having to contend with an overwhelming Democratic majority in the Legislature.

However, after hearing her speak at the Republican convention, I'm beginning to be very thankful — despite the frequent dysfunction of the Hawai'i Democrats — for that check on her power.

To hear her celebrating Sarah Palin's socially conservative values and strict adherence to freetrade ideology certainly contrasted with what she says in front of local crowds and seemed very out of step with most Hawai'i residents.

I realize she was speaking to a partisan crowd and had to highlight certain important talking points, but in agreeing to do the bidding of her party did she also reveal her true colors?

I, for one, will think twice about voting for her again when she most likely runs for national office in 2010 or 2012, and I hope other local people listened to what she had to say and will remember that in the future.

In a politically progressive state like Hawai`i where the Republicans meet in a roomy sardine can as it is, you’d think that if a lame duck like Lingle has any further political ambitions the last place she’d want to be seen is sucking up to the worst of the evangelical fascist crowd.

Perhaps Lingle has realized that no one in Hawai`i is going to vote for her for anything anymore and the only prayer she has for future employment rests in a McCain administration where she hopes to fit right in with an ain’t-gonna-happen third term for Bushista regime.

But the press is always timid when it comes to actually pointing out the emperor’s lack of suitable attire so it was left to a Democratic partisan- our own State Senator, Majority Leader Gary Hooser- to lay it on the line by describing how little Lingle apparently cares about the people of the state when it comes to a choice between her own future and ours.

People may criticize the piece with a “what would you expect from the Senate majority leader” but it’s hard to argue with what he says about the grand imperial wizard of Washington Place.

In a piece from his on again off again blog that was rejected by both Honolulu papers as well as the Kaua`i daily fish-wrap Hooser took advantage of Lingle’s fanatical foibles to lambaste her in a gutsy manner and in a tone you don’t hear much from elected leaders in a piece titled “Lingle/Aiona: Out of step and out of touch”.

He wrote:

While local and national conservatives alike praised Governor Lingle's recent speech before the Republican National Convention, for most in Hawaii it is just further evidence of how out of touch she really is.

It is no wonder that Republicans in Hawaii are fleeing their party in droves. Like GenXer's caught at a Polka fest, they can't get to the door fast enough. Unable to field competent candidates in the upcoming election they have left some 32 seats totally uncontested, and filled others with marginal conservatives totally out of touch with mainstream Hawaii.

Whether delivered by John McCain or Linda Lingle, the Republican message is simply the wrong tune - out of step, out of style and out of touch.

The de facto head of the Hawai‘i Republican party, Governor Linda Lingle, along with her chief wing man Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, are both in St. Paul this week, praising the failed administration of President Bush and Senator John 'Four More Years' McCain, and working hard to defeat Hawai‘i-born Senator Barack Obama.

Why on earth would they be doing this?

Party politics aside, there is no question whatsoever that the vast majority of Hawaii residents support Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Opposing Senator Obama is akin to cheering for Georgia at the Sugar Bowl and hoping for the defeat of the University of Hawaii Warriors.

Without a doubt, the candidate who will offer Hawai‘i the greatest direct benefits would be Barack Obama. Clearly he would continue to visit his place of birth—our island home—to spend time with family and friends. The attention would serve Hawai‘i well, and our Congressional delegation would surely benefit from having a Democratic President with strong Hawai‘i ties.

Governor Lingle once called President Bush 'the best President ever,' so it is not surprising that she believes John McCain 'is a perfect person to elect president of the United States at this time,' as was reported in the Honolulu media.

Senator McCain has been quoted often in support of the Bush administration’s decisions over the past eight years, and he voted with the President over ninety percent of the time. Except perhaps for Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rove and now apparently Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona, few people will deny that the past eight years of the Bush administration have been an unmitigated disaster.

'Bush lied and people died' is more than a catchy slogan on a t-shirt - it is the truth. Lingle, Aiona, and the John McCain's of our country may look the other way in denial but the world community, backed by the overwhelming weight of the evidence knows it is the sad and brutal truth.

The election of Senator John McCain will only perpetuate the policies—and errors—of the past. Our country, our world and our community cannot afford four more years of this downward spiral.

McCain and the Republicans do not support Native Hawaiian recognition, and yet our Native Hawaiian Lieutenant Governor and our supposedly pro-recognition Governor still insist on supporting them. And they oppose Barack Obama who has pledged his support for the full recognition of Hawaii's indigenous people.

In light of the Hawaii connection and the obvious strong support for Obama by their state’s voters, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor could easily have refused an active role in the Republican convention and the McCain campaign. The leaders of their party would have understood. No one in either party would expect the Governor or Lieutenant Governor to campaign actively against their state’s 'favorite son.

'The role they have embraced at the convention is not simply an appropriate response to a party obligation; this is political pandering at its worst. Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona will be stumping this week for candidates who not only oppose Barack Obama, but who oppose Native Hawaiian recognition, oppose a woman's right to choose, oppose sex education in our schools, oppose equal rights being granted to all people, oppose environmental regulation, and oppose universal health care.

And why would our Governor and Lieutenant Governor be doing this?

It has to be about the money because it can't be about the votes. Lingle and Aiona are more likely to lose votes in their next elections as voters recall their opposition of Obama and support of Bush/McCain. Their aggressive support for McCain and opposition to Obama isn’t about votes, and it’s not about principle. It is about money.

While losing votes and working to reduce our state’s political capital, Lingle and Aiona will gain national recognition and make points with national Republican funding groups. Both will likely do quite handsomely in the fund-raising department during the coming run-up to 2010, and both are most likely betting the memory of the electorate will be short while the pockets of their mainland contributors will be deep.

The elephant in the room that no one has quite stated in so many words is that in these days of upcoming economic calamity it seems Lingle is all too ready to push her constituents under the bus for her political ambitions.

If given her druthers she’d apparently deal a vicious blow to our local economy by putting the kibosh on the expected “Obama Birthplace Tourism” that will follow his election, as it has every other president.

Activist songwriter Jackson Browne has sung “I ain’t no Democrat, but I sure ain’t no Republican” and we resemble that remark.

Unlike Gary we’re not quite hungry enough to choke down whole the bland if not distasteful lack of choice servings on the public policy menu that Obama/Biden presents no matter how much smothering salt and spice it has.

Just like McCain, Obama’s lips have never met a corporate butt they’re not willing to kiss and no matter what happens in November the USA Inc. will still be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortune 500.

We’ll be savoring a dish truly to our liking by voting for Cynthia McKinney who, along with Ralph Nader, serves up blue-plate-special policies that we can actually support rather than merely stomach some less vomit-inducing slop.

Though Hooser touts Obama’s support of “Native Hawaiian recognition” the Akaka bill is a piece of century-old fish designed to steal the lands of the Kanaka Maoli “one last time fair and square”.

And Obama still supports all those little erosions of women’s control over their own bodies and though he apparently opposes “abstinence only” sex education still favors stressing abstinence in a bow to church-addled zealots.

And Obama is ready willing and able to compromise away many environmental protections, slip-sliding toward off-shore drilling, nuclear power and wherever else he can find “the middle ground”

And “universal health care” under Obama is a joke. Single government payer or “Medicare for all” is something we’ll never see when Obama takes over... just like all the other things like an end to the current wars, a dismantling of the war machine and an end to the cockamamie wars on terror, drugs and people as contained in the new FISA act and other repressive homeland insecurity legislation..

It could be worse- be thankful for term limits.