U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye agrees with calls by some pundits and even President Barack Obama for more restrained public discourse in the wake of the fatal shootings in Tucson.

"I think our rhetoric has become a bit too harsh," Inouye said today in a meeting with reporters in his Honolulu office.  "We should consider what we say because, after all, we are looked upon by some of the people of the United States as being leaders in our communities and what we say has some special meaning. 

"So I hope that we will conduct ourselves a bit more civilly."

Inouye spoke on a wide variety of topics, including his disappointment at the loss of federal earmarks for Hawaii and the prospects for federal funding of Honolulu’s rail transit system.