Marumoto, for one, will be spared election frustrations

Here come the 2012 elections, finally. Reapportionment is pau, the Democrats are in convention, and politics is starting to become the spectator sport we need to rescue us from the looming summer heat.

At the convention, the first thing Democrats need to do is appoint a special committee to guard U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s nose. An unending stream of Democrats is putting the senior senator’s nose out of joint.

Ever since Inouye muttered "What a liar," after his tough cross-examination of John Ehrlichman during the 1973-74 Watergate hearings, we have known that it is best to tiptoe around Inouye’s sensitivities.

At least Ehrlichman’s distortions happened immediately; today Inouye still fumes over how former U.S. Rep. Ed Case in 2006 allegedly misled him about plans to run against U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka. Six years later and Inouye still develops a twitch at the mention of Case’s name.

And how many years will have to pass before Inouye can forget that former Gov. Ben Cayetano said Inouye needed to get out more and listen to the concerns of the common folk?

As part of his continuing "Anybody But Case" campaign, Inouye is backing U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, Case’s Democratic opponent in the U.S. Senate race; this has caused other Democrats to call for a convention resolution directing party leaders to keep their noses, especially senatorial noses, out of primary fights.

Longtime Inouye supporters have been trying to stamp out the restrictions, saying it is an issue of free speech.

Actually, Democrats have already handled the issue of free speech at the convention: It isn’t free; it costs $500 a minute. At least that is what the party is charging members and candidates if they want to hold a rally during the convention. Officials say they need the money and there are enough Democrats hungry for exposure, so a new market has been born.

When the convention ends on Sunday, the issue to be resolved will not be the care and feeding of Inouye’s ego, but how much Gov. Neil Abercrombie can use the tensions within the Democratic Party to both speed along his own goals and set his administration’s sometimes-controversial plans in motion.

Democratic activists are still worried about the Legislature’s attempts to temporarily cancel state environmental protection laws in order to hurry along job-creating development.

Abercrombie lost some support from environmentalists during the last two legislative sessions. The rejections come at the same time that Abercrombie has failed to win over the public worker unions, which are an obvious and big part of the Hawaii Democratic Party.

If he is to control the party, Abercrombie will have to do more to bring those groups into his tent.

Failure to do so will mean a frustrating election year for the Democratic governor.

One person who will not worry about frustrating elections is Republican state Rep. Barbara Marumoto, who this week announced she would retire after a string of 18 election wins, starting with the 1978 Constitutional Convention.

During World War II, as a 2-year-old, Marumoto and her family were forced to live in a horse stall at a temporary internment camp set up for Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Later, her career in Hawaii politics could be the model for successful community involvement as Marumoto rose through the ranks of the state Republican Party.

Marumoto was always a smart and strong moderate influence on the party. She and fellow GOP state Rep. Cynthia Thielen broke with national Republican dogma and voted in favor of civil unions.

Through 34 years in the minority, Marumoto always was the steady, calm voice of reason — something Abercrombie found out last year when he personally attacked her during a committee hearing, claiming she didn’t understand his tax bill.

As it turned out, it was Abercrombie who misquoted his own proposal and the administration was forced to admit its error.

When asked for reaction, Marumoto politely smiled.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.