Has Abercrombie become our Prince of Darkness?

Back in the days when Neil Abercrombie was eating humble pie on the City Council and plotting a return to Washington, he used to say his favorite movie quote was delivered by Burt Lancaster in the movie "Atlantic City."

Lancaster, playing a rundown gangster, is walking the boardwalk with a young fellow who marvels at seeing the Atlantic Ocean now.

"You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days," Lancaster said.

I watched Gov. Abercrombie last week on PBS-Hawaii’s "Insights" and came away thinking, "You should have seen Abercrombie in those days." Who knows who we have now?

Last week Abercrombie was trying to defend his gutting of the state information practices act by saying that refusing to obey either the letter or spirit of the law was just a philosophical argument.

The issue at hand was the governor’s refusal to reveal his list of judicial nominations, despite being told to by the state Office of Information Practices. Instead of obeying the office, Abercrombie dismissed the acting OIP director and appointed Cheryl Kakazu Park.

Park proved more to Abercrombie’s liking because she opined that she couldn’t resolve the issue, and if you want sunshine you have to sue Abercrombie.

"It is apparent that rendering another OIP advisory opinion would be futile and that court action is necessary," Park wrote.

Abercrombie first had argued that he shouldn’t release the list of nominees because then everybody would see who was angling to be a judge, and if the list were public, qualified people just won’t apply.

The reasoning flies in the face of everything that has happened to judicial appointments since Ben Cayetano was governor. He released the list, former Gov. Linda Lingle asked the public to comment on the list so she could get extra input. The previous and present state Supreme Court chief justices release their lists of District Court nominations.

Somehow in this bright sunshine, the republic still stood, the courts were not packed with fools or hacks, and the U.S. Justice Department didn’t swoop in and seize our courts.

OIP even offered Abercrombie a brilliant compromise; release the names on the list after the new judge is confirmed. Then no one is hurt and the public is served. But no, Abercrombie refused, so the Star-Advertiser has sued and the courts will hopefully decide that the governor is not above the law of the land.

Meanwhile Abercrombie belittles his opponents and throws out enough chaff to be worthy of a missile protection system.

"Why doesn’t the Star-Advertiser go after the Judicial Selection Commission (which gives the governor the list of nominees, but is not allowed to make it public)?" Abercrombie asked on television.

Abercrombie said if the newspaper was serious, and not "trying to create drama," it would go to the Legislature and demand that the law be changed so that the Judicial Selection Commission make the list public.

Then Abercrombie turns his sophistry into high gear.

"I don’t vet the editorials at the Star-Advertiser. Why don’t their editorial writers sign their editorials?" he asks, as if this was even part of the discussion.

This is the sort of retort you would expect from red-neck, knuckle-dragging sheriffs in the backwoods of Arkansas, not the governor of one of the 50 states.

What worried the governor was that knowing too much about who were the governor’s possible picks would "turn potential applicants for high judicial posts into some kind of political evisceration circus; it is a philosophical point."

One of Abercrombie’s judicial picks turned out to be a campaign donor who used to work in his office. Could the public evaluate how this apparent cronyism compared to the other candidates? No, because Abercrombie was preventing a public circus.

The real point of philosophy is that Abercrombie wants a government known to him, run by him, for a public gratefully kept in the dark.

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