Volcanic Ash: From the politically profane to the profanely ridiculous

I had to laugh when a six-column headline in the newspaper last week declared: “Kahele uses profanity describing race with Gabbard.”

State Sen. Kai Kahele, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for her House seat as she pursues her presidential ambitions, had told an interviewer from Vice News, “She’s got a f—ing tiger on her tail, and she’s gonna be in trouble.”

It seemed quaint in this age of anything-goes politics that this was even considered news.

Donald Trump was taped using a more offensive vulgarity to describe female body parts that he boasted of grabbing, and he referred to black nations as “s—thole countries.”

Our own U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono has been dropping f-bombs like a monosyllabic teenager and Gabbard herself called the president a “bitch” on Twitter.

One of Gabbard’s fellow longshot presidential candidates, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, was quoted in the same Vice article as Kahele appeared saying, “F— it.”

Kahele could have argued he was merely boning up on the language he’d need to be understood in the nation’s capital, but instead he tried to weasel out with another Washington communications staple — claiming that he thought the interview was off the record.

The profanity may have actually been the least asinine thing Kahele said in that interview.

He talked about exploiting Gabbard’s ties to what he described as “this super weirded-out cult,” referring to a recent story in New York Magazine about Gabbard’s upbringing in an offshoot Hare Krishna group led by controversial guru Chris Butler.

If you’re going to go after an opponent’s religious beliefs, seldom a good idea in our diverse and pluralistic state, a candidate presenting himself as a progressive would be well-advised to at least do it with less prejudiced words than “weird.”

Kahele said Gabbard’s quixotic presidential run is the equivalent of trying to surf a 40-foot wave in Waimea Bay without dying.

In fact, Gabbard is an avid surfer, and if the presidential election was a wave-riding contest, she’d probably be the favorite to win.

Kahele touted the endorsements he’s received from three former Hawaii Democratic governors and depicted their message to Gabbard as: “Good luck running for president, but don’t come back to Hawaii.”

I’m guessing they probably wouldn’t have said it quite that way.

Kahele crowed, “It’s a different Hawaii than what she’s used to and I’m a completely different candidate than anything she’s ever faced.”

One thing that’s still the same about Hawaii, as his former governors could tell him, is that local voters tend to be wary of political candidates who come across as too full of themselves.

They equate it to being full of a profane word I wouldn’t use in this family newspaper.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.