HERE'S the way the political game is played in Hawaii: power is a football; the football is owned by one team; the team that owns the football always wins; if it looks like the team that owns the football isn't going to win, it changes the rules; when the team that owns the football wins, you are supposed to pretend that the game was fair. Tom-foolery
is an insult
to the votersIt's not democracy. I'm not sure what it is, but it stinks. It's insulting. It's degrading. It makes us look like some Third World country.
I'm talking about House Judiciary Chairman Terrance Tom's arrogant attempt to make sure that the governor's race is tipped heavily in favor of Gov. Ben Cayetano. Tom's committee has changed the rules of campaign fund-raising because it looked like Maui Mayor Linda Lingle, Cayetano's likely Republican challenger, might have a shot at making the election a real contest. But Tom orchestrated a new rule limiting how much money political parties can give to candidates.
When anyone at the committee hearing tried to question the change, Tom shrilly shouted that he was only trying to "level the playing field."
How Tom thought the public would swallow such a blatant lie is beyond comprehension. Level the playing field? A level playing field means that both sides have an equal chance to score.
Because Democratic incumbents have the majority of private contributions locked up -- mostly by virtue of the prizes, trinkets and non-bid contract goodies they can give out after their election -- the minority candidates depend heavily on money given to them by their party. You take away that and you are not "leveling the playing field," Mr. Tom, you are deliberately crippling the competition.
YOU are blatantly changing the rules to assure that your team wins. It is a sniveling, sneaky, underhanded, sleazy, reprehensible, morally repugnant, intellectually dishonest, cowardly -- hold on, I've got to reach for my thesaurus. OK, where were we? -- recreant, craven, treacherous, perfidious, pigeon-hearted, weak-kneed, discriminatory, despotic, tyrannical, arbitrary, creepy, not to mention, an obviously unsportsmanlike thing to do. (I could go on, but I don't want to overdo it.)
That fact that Tom wanted to make this odious insult to the democratic process retroactive so that Lingle would have to return $250,000 raised at a recent Republican event shows that Lingle has the Democratic leadership shaking in their zories. What's the matter, boys? Scared of a little girl?
The weasels at least realized that asking the public to swallow the retroactive part of the new law was too much, even for a voting public that has been better trained than a family of barking circus seals.
Why Terrence Tom has been assigned the role of Democratic Party Hitman, I don't know. But he obviously relishes the part. He has the ability to whip up righteous indignation in a heartbeat when anyone has the audacity to suggest the emperor has no clothes. He can slurp up money from the hand of Bishop Estate without the least embarrassment.
What work is this public servant doing for the most powerful political entity in the state? Don't worry your cute little head about it, voter person.
My advice to Linda Lingle? Screw it. Become a Democrat. Get on the team that controls the ball.
The only difference is that you'll be meeting Big Ben in the playoffs, not the championship game. And the championship game will be a cakewalk. Let's see what kind of rules Tom will come up with to stop that.