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Saiki retracts word that
‘doesn’t exist anyway’Rep. Galen Fox (R, Waikiki-Ala Moana) deliberately mispronounced "disingenuous" as "disingenius" during debate on the House floor last week in an apparent attempt to avoid violating House decorum. But the ploy backfired as his Democratic colleagues adopted "disingenius" in jest in their debate.
The episode started when Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Poamoho Camp) described Gov. Linda Lingle's effort to salvage her proposal for locally elected school boards as "not an example of compromise, but one of face-saving" during debate on the House floor Tuesday.
Prior to the Legislature's approval of its omnibus education reform measure, Senate Bill 3238, CD1, Lingle offered what she called a compromise, changing to four from seven the number of school boards in her proposal.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature had already rejected Lingle's proposal for seven locally elected school boards. Oshiro's comments were in response to Republican House members' attempt to introduce Lingle's new proposal.
But because House rules restrict debate to the merits of the measures before them and prohibit members from impeaching the motives other members, House Speaker Calvin Say (D, St. Louis Heights-Kaimuki) ordered the term "face-saving" stricken from the record.
That prompted Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Makiki-Dowsett Highlands) to ask Say to also remove disingenuous from the record, which she attributed to Fox.
Luke withdrew her request after Fox said he did not say disingenuous.
"I said disingenius," Fox said.
Later, during debate on a different measure, Rep. Scott Saiki (D, Moiliili-Kaimuki) also deliberately mispronounced "disingenuous" as "disingenius," prompting a quick response from Fox.
"It is totally out of order to reintroduce that word," Fox said.
Saiki responded, "I retract it since it doesn't exist anyway."
Three days later, Rep. Alex Sonson (D, Waipahu-Pearl City) labeled as "disingenius" Republican arguments to reject the Hawaii Government Employee Association arbitrated pay raises.
There was no response from Fox.
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