Political Punditry; Police And Politics

HPD Deputy Chief Dave Kajihiro (from left), Chief Louis Kealoha and Deputy Chief Marie MacCauley answer questions Sept. 30 at a legislative hearing on domestic violence
STAR-ADVERTISER PHOTO BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA

There’s been a surfeit of punditry about the perceived faults that caused the political downfalls of Neil Abercrombie and Mufi Hannemann.

I’d like to add something. It’s true that Mufi strong-armed the train on us, but the mark of a good leader is moving us forward when we tend to be sluggish. I’d like to see a Superferry brought back, too. I don’t know how that “bully” appellation got started. Maybe from his pre-mayor days when he and a brother physically harassed a reporter in a movie theater. Maybe over his campaign staff’s dirty and untruthful hit against then-mayoral candidate Duke Bainum’s wife. And one of his greatest failings was not getting our potholed roads resurfaced.

But I’d not be concerned for our future if Mufi pulled off an (unlikely) upset in November. He’s smart, he’s visionary and he’s driven.

Abercrombie is pilloried for having said he’s the governor for the greater good and not a pal to a few. Nothing wrong with that. Perhaps the way he said it was taken as arrogance. Hey, Joe Biden regularly sounds arrogant and nobody’s putting him down for it. Being governor for the greater good is responsible leadership. And he was right to recommend we tax the pensions of people with high incomes. The feds tax pensions, and so do most other states. It’s income and should be taxable for those earning major post-retirement income.

I’d not have been worried for our future if Abercrombie had been renominated for governor. He’s smart, he’s visionary and he’s driven.

Duke Aiona and David Ige are mysteries. Very few of you have sat in on Ige’s Senate Ways and Means Committee sessions (he once wanted to special-tax all beverages with sugar), and very few of you were ever in Aiona’s courtroom when he was a judge (he has said he knows what’s right and what’s wrong).

Both appear to be very smart. Visionary? We don’t know. Driven? Well, isn’t everyone who seeks political office?

Mark Takai or Charles Djou? Another contest where we’re not sold short no matter which goes to Congress. Both are smart and with solid lawmaking backgrounds. You can be comfortable with either candidate unless you’re utterly partisan.

In the Brian Schatz-Cam Cavasso U.S. Senate race, without measuring smarts or vision you’d have to be living in a cave not to know how that will turn out.

Anyway, that’s my punditry. Fortunately, I do not have to stand for election as a columnist.

Good nuts-and-bolts people get selected as chief operating officers of companies, but not the run-it-all position of CEO because they just don’t quite “have it.”

I think that’s the case with HPD Chief Louis Kealoha. Good cop, but he doesn’t “have it” to run the political and visionary side. Nobody’s ever told me he’s the smartest of cops; just one of the steadiest.

So we should ask why the Honolulu Police Commission picked him as CEO and what that says about Mayor Caldwell, who picked the police commission.

banyantreehouse@gmail.com