Under the Sun Cynthia Oi

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Words can get in the way when you're trying to say what you mean

ALL of us, at one time or another, suffer from foot-in-mouth disease, when we've said something we didn't mean, or meant something we did say but would rather not have said it because it could offend.

For regular people, the disease isn't usually fatal, drunken bar fights and road rage aside. For politicians and candidates, an indiscreet remark can be ruinous. In an age of instant and unbridled communication, when anyone with a cell phone can capture and broadcast a casual comment or an ambiguous episode, when every utterance is analyzed and parsed, politicians learn to be cagey.

Still, muffs happen.

During a debate with Gov. Linda Lingle, Democratic challenger Randy Iwase's response to a question to define himself and the voters who would support him was this: "An Iwase Democrat is someone who grew up here, who cares deeply about Hawaii, its people and its future."

The statement cut into the sheath of island civility.

Iwase, when asked about it during a meeting with this newspaper's editorial board, explained that what he said didn't come out right. He thought the question was about his background and why he was a Democrat. He did not mean for it to be exclusionary, he said.

Iwase can be given the benefit of the doubt, but his misinterpretation sparked bad feelings anyway. Some people who migrated to Hawaii were offended since the badge of being "local" is flaunted, in their minds, to the point of excess. Those who were born and raised here were disturbed because it presumes that localness establishes an overriding credential. Still others were taken aback, startled that he would voice a notion that ordinarily wouldn't be brought up in mixed company.

The explanation recalls the Watergate-era political maneuver "modified limited hangout," coined by President Nixon's advisers as a way to own up without having to admit completely to a lie.

It's what Hillary Clinton's opponent used this week in denying he had called the New York senator ugly. "I would never call Hillary Clinton ugly," the former Yonkers mayor blustered after a story, headlined "Getting Ugly," appeared in the New York Daily News.

What Spencer said in the interview was that he thought Clinton had spent millions of dollars on cosmetic surgery because she looks better today than when she was younger.

"You ever see a picture of her back then? Whew. I don't know why Bill married her," Spencer was quoted as saying.

While it's true he didn't use the word "ugly," his remarks clearly conveyed an appraisal of her appearance.

In the scheme of things, Spencer's "hangout" amounts to little more than the usual puff and blow of politics.

Not so with President Bush's claim, in an ABC News interview last weekend, that he has never advocated "staying the course" in Iraq.

The slogan has been the core of the administration's war policy. Confronted with scores of instances when he uttered those exact words, the president's men released their own mutant version of a hangout.

OK, they admitted, Bush has said "stay the course," but the gosh-darn American people keep misinterpreting what that means.

So what does it mean? Well, says White House spokesman Tony Snow, it means adjusting tactics to stay the course, but not just staying the course.

Unlike the New York or Hawaii incidents, the war of words in Washington has considerable consequence. Growing disapproval at home because of the upsurge of death and hostilities in Iraq is slamming a White House nervous about losing Republican control of Congress.

The slogan, like the previous "Mission Accomplished" motto, has become politically inoperative, reflecting an inflexibility and unwillingness to stop doing what clearly doesn't work.

My hope is that the administration's strategies, not just its catch phrase, will change, that the shift in words signals a shift in policy. And I really don't care what label or tag the president wants to slap on it.