Politicians provide year’s worth of foibles

We’ll say goodbye to 2017 by remembering the year in “flASHbacks.”

>> The rare Lahaina Noon, when the sun is directly overhead and we cast no shadow, occurred twice in the same month. We all got to experience what it feels like to be Gov. David Ige every day.

>> U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said she’ll run against Ige in the Democratic primary, faulting him for getting little done when there are no Republicans in the state Senate and just five in the House. Only a Democrat would expect less competition to equal more productivity.

>> Hawaii’s Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono ranked with Bernie Sanders as the three most popular U.S. senators in a Morning Consult poll. With this Senate, it’s like being named the most popular floater in a sewage spill.

>> President Donald Trump made his first official visit to Hawaii. His motorcade snarled traffic as he dropped off the first lady in Waikiki and his hair at the Animal Quarantine Station.

>> The price of Honolulu rail neared $10 billion as state legislators raised the hotel room tax and general excise tax for another bailout. Instead of an adding machine, we track rail costs with a Doomsday Clock.

>> Former Gov. Ben Cayetano urged Trump to kill federal rail funding, describing the local project as the “poster boy for … politics, incompetence, disinformation and outright lies.” Trump was relieved; he thought he was the poster boy for all that stuff.

>> The city named Andrew Robbins, who led a losing bid to supply Honolulu rail cars, as new transit CEO. He’s the perfect lead singer for the Grand Flunk Railroad.

>> The City Council invited private interests to sponsor city facilities in exchange for visual recognition. A neon sign on Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s office will flash between Territorial Savings Bank and Pacific Resource Partnership.

>> The Council passed tax and fee increases on cars, parking and bus rides, which Caldwell called “revenue enhancers.” Revenue enhancers are in politics what a related profession calls happy endings.

>> Councilman Trevor Ozawa proposed to deploy armed rangers to deal with the homeless in city parks. It would be a better investment to arm City Council members with IQs.

>> Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui said he won’t seek re-election and will take a year to “recharge” before deciding his next step. Only government could devise a $145,000-a-year, do-nothing job that takes another year of doing nothing to recover from.

>> Still saddled with a $70 million debt from the failed Hawaii Superferry, the Legislature sought a $50,000 feasibility study for a new interisland ferry. You’d think $70 million down the drain IS a feasibility study.

>> Hawaii state legislators considered a futuristic plan to guarantee every resident a minimum income. The way it would work is everybody who is otherwise unemployable would get a seat in the Legislature.