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Lingle leads, but
will they follow?

At first glance, Governor Lingle appears to be the most picked-upon politician since maverick Mayor Frank Fasi had a constitutional amendment passed primarily to stop him from running for governor.

The "resign to run" provision of the 1978 ConCon was passed in large part because Fasi, the longest-serving mayor in Honolulu's history, would win re-election for mayor and then two years later run for governor and spend his campaign tweaking the noses of the Democratic establishment.

Democrats in the ConCon had enough of Fasi's antics and changed the Constitution forcing state office holders to resign their current office before running for another.

In Lingle's case, this year's Legislature has been busy developing a long list of bills to weaken the governor's office. They include measures to require the governor to spend all appropriated money or hold public hearings to explain why the money is being held back.

If a legislator can't spend money, or as they would say "address critical needs," what good are they? Realizing that Lingle's power of the purse trumps their power to appropriate money, Democrats are readying bills to snip those purse strings.

In a speech last week, Lingle snapped that "It is clear why you don't release that money, it is because you don't have it."

Lingle says that because the state budget is based on estimates of future tax collections, it would be foolish to spend everything and hope that tomorrow will be as good as today.

Of course, the Legislature is concerned, not because Lingle has been cutting back more than other governors or because her restrictions are any more political than those of previous governors, but simply because she is a Republican and is not accountable to the Legislature's Democrats.

"I have no more authority than previous governors, and I don't act much differently than they did," Lingle said last week.

Besides spending or not spending money, the Legislature wants to restrict Lingle's power to make appointments to the Board of Regents, Judicial Selection Commission, Hawaii Tourism Authority, Labor Relations Board and Land Use Commission.

Another bill introduced by Senate President Robert Bunda calls for Lingle to appoint members for all boards and commissions from lists compiled by the House and Senate.

As self-serving as these attempts to rein in Lingle's power may appear, they also are a trap for Lingle.

Lingle has explained her election as the result of a public fed up with 40 years of Democratic mistakes. Lingle says in so many words, "You voted for me because you want change, and we are agents of change."

If that is true, then the public's massive rejection of Lingle's endorsed candidates in the 2004 election must also show that the public wants some checks on those "change agents."

The next time Lingle tries to rally the troops and announces that "we are all in this together," she may want to check her back to make sure there are enough followers.