Honolulu Lite
We didn't hear a peep out of Mayor Jeremy Harris, Democratic candidate for governor, when the Maui County Council announced its intention to politically assassinate Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle six months ago. Bad Old Boys sharpening
the Harris hatchetMaui political hacks tried to hire former attorney general (and Hawaii's Official State Pit Bull) Margery Bronster to dig up dirt on Lingle in what would have been a classic, Land of Aloha, political hatchet job.
Such a dirty trick came as a surprise to no one in the free world, especially Lingle, who, as former mayor of Maui, knew what a pack of weasels her former colleagues were.
Bronster, put off by either the blatant stench of the proposal or the paltry $30,000 reward for the contract hit, declined the offer.
It would have shown a certain amount of class by front-runner Harris had he denounced the putrid preemptive strike, saying something to the effect of "The politics of destruction has got to end in Hawaii. I look forward to facing Linda Lingle on the even playing field of ideas."
But Harris, perhaps preoccupied with operating the backhoe he uses to scoop campaign donations out of the pockets of engineers, architects and hotel owners, didn't utter a word.
They say that what goes around comes around and now it's coming around with a vengeance for Hizzoner. State Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Bob Watada already has fined a number of Harris supporters for stupidly throwing thousands in cash at Harris in public instead of putting it in brown bags and slipping it to him secretly like fixers are supposed to do. (Whew. I've got to watch it. I came dangerously close to using the word "bribery" in that last sentence.)
Watada, a political appointee who has absolutely no ax to grind other than the one he plans to use on Harris' neck, then announced with just a tad too much glee that he was investigating 60 other companies and individuals who might have violated campaign spending limits in connection with the Harris campaign. He added that IF he discovers evidence Harris knew the donations were illegal, he will turn the whole shebang over to the prosecutor for criminal action.
You merely have to substitute the aforementioned "IF" with "WHEN" to see where this juggernaut is going. Can you say "indictment"?
Suddenly, there seems to be some creepy rationale to D.G. Andy Anderson's heretofore whimsical entry into the Democratic primary. Maui whacks Lingle, Watada whacks Harris and bingo!, Andy Anderson, political party switch-hitter and sudden love interest of the Old Boy Network, is governor!
Will voters actually sanction a power grab so ruthless it would make the Taliban blush? If political history in the Land of Aloha is any guide, you bet.
Alo-Ha! Friday compiles odd bits of news from Hawaii
and the world to get your weekend off to an entertaining start.
Charles Memminger also writes Honolulu Lite Mondays,
Wednesdays and Sundays. Send ideas to him at the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210,
Honolulu 96813, phone 235-6490 or e-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com.
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