Junior Matsuura
splits with late
dad over Bronster

Like father, like son -- not! Not in the case of Sen. David Matsuura when it comes to Attorney General Margery Bronster, whom the Senate rejected for a second four-year term.

Prior to the 14-11 vote to oust Bronster, Matsuura (D, Hilo) -- who now holds the seat that his late father, Richard Matsuura, once held -- claimed that Bronster was threatening criminal prosecutions against senators who voted against her. Bronster said that was hogwash.

Four years ago, the senior Matsuura turned a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into a love fest for Bronster, then the attorney general-designate, and said she had a lock on his confirmation vote. She had testified on two bills that would have made the state's chief legal officer elected rather than appointed, as is done now.

When Bronster revealed that she wouldn't consider being attorney general if the position was elective, the elder Matsuura gushed: "If you were not going to run, who would we get? Not people like you."

SAME-SEX BATTLE: Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, president of the Oahu chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders, has denounced the 10 legislators who signed an "open letter" to Vermont citizens, asking them to reject same-sex marriage just as Hawaii did.

She accused the lawmakers of misrepresenting last year's vote against same-sex marriage as "anything but an overwhelming mandate of the electorate," even though nearly seven out of every 10 votes went against her position. And she also accused the legislators of engaging in an "immoral fight."

But one of the signees, Rep. Dennis Arakaki (D, Kalihi Valley), has cautioned those intent on painting him as "anti-homosexual" for signing the open letter. Arakaki said that while he is a supporter of traditional marriage, he is opposed to discrimination in public accommodations. That's the stance of gay-rights supporters.