IN SEARCH OF A PACK

IN SEARCH OF A PACK: Yesterday’s brief mention of Councilperson Jay Furfaro’s vague 2010 political aspirations for higher office- as reported by Joan Conrow in last week’s “Kauai People”- are nonetheless clearer then those of once and current blogger, former Councilperson Mel Rapozo.

Knowing that he has to do something to get his political fortunes ball rolling after an embarrassingly poor showing in the 2006 special mayoral election where he failed to make the run-off round, he has latched onto the issue of the Furlough Fridays with a redux of a probably apocryphal quote commonly attributed to French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin.

Supposedly, upon seeing a crowd surge past him in Paris during the French Revolution, he is said to have shrieked, “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them” .... much as Rapozo said, though with less brevity, in his blog post yesterday:

As our legislators sit back and watch the future of out keiki get compromised, we need to move to action. We need to initiate change ourselves. I am looking for people that will walk the walk, not talk the talk. I'm looking for people that are willing to MAKE CHANGE, not just talk about it. I am looking for THOUSANDS of concerned citizens to come together to DEMAND change from our legislators. If this issue does motivate people to get involved, nothing will. It is so sad to see that more people gave a damn about the Superferry than for our keiki. This is not right. People, let's PUT UP OR SHUT UP. If you are interested in joining this movement, let me know. More importantly, you need to pass this on. My email is melrapozo@gmail.com and I want to make sure that the future of our kids is the PRIORITY! People, let's PUT UP OR SHUT UP. If you are interested in joining this movement, let me know.
GOD HELP OUR CHILDREN!!

Now this wouldn’t be a shallow, transparently self-serving appeal to find new supporters and expand his e-mailing list for a run at either the soon to be vacant state senate seat or the vulnerable seat of State Representative Jimmy Tokioka whose anti-civil rights and pro-Superferry actions among others have pissed of a couple of precinct-loads of progressive East Kaua`i voters would it?

Nah- we’re not that cynical. However we do remember Mel first run for political office when he started showing up to the famous “Developers Gone Wild”, grading and grubbing hearings before the county council and promised to focus like a laser on an investigation of the Department of Public Works- the self same DPW that just cost the county an as yet unknown percentage of the reported $25 million Ka Loko Dam tragedy settlement- for complicity in other prior grading and grubbing cover-ups allegedly under the tutelage of former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.

Needless to say demands for that investigation were dropped by Rapozo soon after taking office purportedly due to opposition by other councilmembers but coincidentally after the rest of his colleagues went to bat for him in his efforts to keep from the public eye whatever he said during the infamous ES-177... which will forever remain sealed after a recent Hawai`i Supreme Court Decision

Apparently Rapozo- whose new blog now has advertising for such diverse enterprises as the Playboy Store and the 2010 campaign of Republican Kay Bailey Huchison for Governor of Texas- has gone back to his old playbook and come up with a populist issue ripe for demagoguery for the 2010 campaign- one which can accommodate seething rabid rhetoric that can ultimately be swept under the rug once elected because “political realities” have come into play.

Now we would never cast aspersions as to Rapozo’s intellectual integrity. Well, alright we certainly would but here, as a matter of fact and in all seriousness, we actually believe he’s most likely as pissed as anyone at the disingenuousness and vapidity of the Lingle administration and the lack of political will and acumen in the legislature.

But you got to admit it’s funny how, with exactly one year to go until the election Rapozo is seeking to rush to the gates of the Bastille- aka the steps of the capitol- to find his people so he can lead them.