Musings: Polls and Hypocrisy

The days are definitely getting shorter, which means no more heading to the beach for a swim at 6 p.m., although I did see a wedge of moon in the west at about that time last night, and Koko and I were well along our walking route this morning before the sun rose — a sphere of muted, soft gold.

It was still and humid, the pavement stained purple from fallen java plum, and Waialeale was adorned with clouds in three layers of color — pearl white, dove gray and apricot — that were rapidly turning charcoal about the time we ran into my neighbor Andy, walking two dogs.

It’s always such a pleasure to see the joy that dogs get from being out in the world, and their antics helped keep things light as our conversation touched on weightier matters that dogs have the good sense to entirely avoid, like the failings of human communication, politics and Hawaiian rights.

The latter two came up in a phone call I received Friday night from SMS Research on Oahu, which was conducting a poll of Kauai voters. The pollster didn’t want to know much, just my opinions of mayoral candidates JoAnn Yukimura and Bernard Carvalho (snore), whether I thought Kauai was better or worse now than five years ago and whether I thought it would be better or worse five years in the future (worse, unfortunately, on both counts) and my thoughts about having a Constitutional Convention (we don’t need one.)

And then he said he had another question about the Con-Con, and asked which statement I agreed with most: that it was time to re-examine the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and other Hawaiian programs, or the Hawaiian part of the Constitution should be left alone.

I answered “the latter” as the red alert flag raised and it became clear to me that Hawaiians are the ones with the most to lose in this push for a Con-Con, which has been endorsed by Gov. Lingle, Lt. Gov. Aiona,, Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and others sympathetic to the rigid philosophies of the GOP.

The pollster had no interest in my opinion on any of the other hot topics that could be floated at a Con-Con — local school boards, same sex marriage, banning abortion, a new Department of Energy. Only the Hawaiian issue was of concern.

It doesn’t seem that this is the time to be re-examining OHA or any other Hawaiian entitlement programs now that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of whether the state should be allowed to sell or transfer the so-called ceded lands that originally belonged to the Kingdom of Hawaii. Let’s get the core issue settled before we start dismantling anything.

The pollster then asked which statement I agreed with most: $6 million is too much to pay for a Con-Con when the state has other needs, or a Con-Con is so important it should be held at any price. Any price? I don’t think so. But then, even $6 million is a lowball figure, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau, which estimated it would likely cost between that and $41.7 million.

In national elections, I was interested to read a revealing New Yorker article about Cindy McCain last night that depicts John McCain as pretty clueless. Seems he didn’t even know his wife was addicted to pain meds that she illegally procured through falsified prescriptions, had taken flying lessons and bought a plane or was planning to adopt a child until she showed up with the kid.

Reading it made me wonder, if he doesn’t know what’s happening in his own home, how is he going to keep an eye on his Administration, much less the nation? We’ve already had two checked out Presidents — Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush — and we don’t need another.

The article also exposed the Republican hypocrisy when it comes to the conservative social agenda they want to force on the rest of us. There she is, attending a Baptist church that is opposed to abortion and believes homosexuality is a “life issue,” like materialism, yet she and John started up their relationship while he was married to another woman.

In a continued perversion of the GOP’s so-called family values, she essentially raised the kids in Phoenix while McCain spent his time in D.C., prompting her to refer to herself as a “single mom” and note while on the campaign trail in 2000: “I’ve never spent this much time with my husband.’’

And while the Bush Administration was busy throwing folks in jail for smoking pakalolo — marijuana arrests reached an all-time high of 872,720 in 2007 —Cindy inherited the fortune, estimated at $100 million, that her family amassed selling beer to the masses.

Go figger.