BRINING IN THE SHEAVES

BRINING IN THE SHEAVES: Since our a.m. agenda failed to materialize we had time to read the sum of the Hawai`i punditry trying to analyze why the Republicans failed so miserably here, not just losing both major races in which they ran allegedly viable candidates but in failing to pick up more state house seats and dropping down to one senate member.

We’re not talking abut the devastating loss in contrast to the national insanity but in terms of Hawai`i politics where the huge margins of the Democratic victories belied the polls that had both the governor and first congressional races neck and neck.

So why the difference?

It’s clear to us that it was the over the top religious statements and affiliations of Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Aiona and, even worse, the way when Aiona tried to play down his ties to some of the worst of the worst of the evangelical nut job organizations, the International Transformation Network, his party’s Chairman Jonah Ka`auwai, chose to up the ante with his infamous “Duke will win because the Church has been behind him the entire time operating in the POWER and the AUTHORITY of the NAME OF JESUS!” essay.

While many look to the way the Aiona campaign and his outside supporters pushed the devilization of Barack Obama or the gravity driven approval ratings of current Republican Governor Linda Lingle those factors might helped but could have been overcome.

We’re not just talking the kind of “my faith is important to me” type of religious mumbo jumbo that can easily slide by but it was the rabid, bible-thumping, nonsensical rantings of the Kaua`i born and bred Ka`auwai that turned what could have been a close race into a runaway for Abercrombie.

With Ka`auwai representing the party in general it not only addled Aiona’s campaign but hurt the party up and down the line with many who might have considered changing over in the current national political climate shying away from supporting the kind of radical Christian agenda represented by the party leadership itself.

Ka`auwai isn’t just one of those “Hawaiian” loyalists who have traditionally been Republicans for a century or even one combined with the 200% Christian element held over from missionary days.

He’s taken that political demographic, which is normally acceptable in the islands, and added the mainland-style, nutcase, religious fanatic element to establish an image in voters’ minds of some kind of Christian Taliban governing though literal interpretations of the bible.

And that’s just too much for multi-cultural Hawai`i voters who just shook their heads and voted Democrat as they have for generations.

Ka`auwai’s time as party boss is over if for no other reason than, when you lose that badly- and do so while the rest of your national party is grabbing power- your welcome is always worn out.

But if the Hawai`i Republican party is smart they’ll run, not walk, away from the brand they’ve been selling this election cycle. Even Eric Ryan might be an improvement.