Lawmaker lobs profanities at fellow Republicans

An angry state Rep. Bob McDermott confronted some of his fellow Republicans in a rare outburst of profanity on the state House floor Monday, demanding that his colleagues “do your (expletive) job.”

The incident began after McDermott (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) took the floor during a discussion of the state budget to complain that a request by Gov. David Ige for $30 million for a new Leeward Oahu high school had been trimmed to $15 million in the latest budget draft.

McDermott said Campbell High School is now unacceptably crowded with an enrollment that has reached 3,102 students, and reducing the amount of money budgeted for a new high school will delay the badly needed project. At the same time, money was inserted into the budget for a new high school on Maui, where Department of Education projections show the student population is declining, he said.

As McDermott was speaking, he exhausted his allotted time for floor remarks, and had to briefly stop speaking when none of his Republican colleagues acted quickly enough to surrender their allotted speaking time so McDermott could continue.

McDermott then walked around some desks to confront his fellow party members, loudly telling a colleague to “start acting like a (expletive) Republican.” In comments after the floor session, McDermott elaborated that he also told his colleagues to “do your (expletive) job.”

After a brief recess, House Speaker Joe Souki resumed the session and asked members “to respect each other and maintain decorum.” Other members of the Republican caucus volunteered their time to allow McDermott to complete his remarks.

McDermott said after the session that his fellow Republicans should have been ready to volunteer their speaking time, but they hesitated because they did not want to upset Souki.

The leadership of the seven-member Republican caucus has gotten “cozy” with the Democrats, and “they’ve abandoned the role of loyal opposition, which is a very important role,” McDermott said.

House Minority Leader Beth Fukumoto Chang said McDermott and others in the caucus have a “fundamental disagreement” over the best way to represent their districts.

“I don’t feel like being collaborative is being a bad Republican,” said Fukumoto Chang (R, Mililani-Mililani Mauka-Waipio Acres). “I said it in my opening day remarks, I think the public is demanding that we be constructive and offer solutions and not just criticize each other, and that’s what I’ve tried to do. That’s the leadership style that I’ve chosen to take, and it sounds like some members of my caucus feel that that’s not appropriate for a Republican, but I disagree.”