An Open House Seat In Hawaii-- Beware The Fake Progressive

Lobbyist Doug Chin

Whether she wins or loses, the biggest wave from Colleen Hanabusa's decision to primary Governor David Ige is that her plum Honolulu-based House seat (PVI is D+17-- won last year by Clinton 63.1% to 30.5%) came up for grabs. Last year Bernie swept the Democratic caucuses in Hawaii, beating Hillary 23,530 to 10,125 (and out-polling Trump's limp 5,677). It would make sense for the Democrats to run a progressive and not some corporate shill. But... well, you know the Democratic Party.

They have an anti-Trump candidate and they hope they can confuse voters into thinking anti-Trump= progressive. It doesn't. The establishment pick, Attorney General Douglas Chin challenged the Trump travel ban-- a good thing to do-- and got tons of press for it, but Chin was appointed to the job by the governor and he's never run for office before. A not very sterling former lobbyist, if he runs, you can count on lots of heretofore hidden baggage emerging. He was a lobbyist for Wasserman Schultz's favorite private prison racket, Corrections Corporation of America and he worked under Honolulu's throw-away-the-key Republican Mayor Peter Carlisle for years as deputy prosecutor, where he opposed criminal justice reform and added to Hawaii's overcrowded prisons, eventually authorizing a deal to send Hawaii prisoners to a Corrections Corporation of America prison in Arizona. Cozy! As a corporate lawyer for Carlsmith Ball, Chin worked for Wall Street banksters against the legitimate interests of Hawaii's working families, reason enough to oppose his attempt to get into Congress.

This week Karen from Maui wrote at Daily Kos that Chin has "been defending business interests who have violated the law and quite rightly the courts have smacked him down. Don't let his one good act (suing over the Muslim Ban) mislead you into thinking he is not the ultimate corporate tool. He is no progressive. Not even close."

While other states and cities have stood up to ICE, Chin has been more than compliant. in fact, under Chin Hawaii's per capita deportation rate has been the highest in the nation. Meanwhile, he has a well-earned reputation for approving lots and lots of pay-to play sweetheart deals with millionaire developers and contractors.

Doug Chin isn't a progressive, just an anti-Trump Democrat. There will likely be several actual progressives who do run, one of which-- we're hoping-- will be Hawaii's most progressive state legislator, Kaniela Ing. We'll let you know if he decides to jump into the race. One extremely right-wing fake Democrat who is almost certainly running for the seat is the wretched state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim. Two other state senators, Karl Rhoads and Stanley Chang, are also considering the race.

With Hanabusa Running For Governor, The Battle Is On For The Honolulu Congressional Seat

Rejected by the voters in her Senate run, now she wants to be governor

News started breaking Friday afternoon that conservaDem Colleen Hanbusa intends to give up her Honolulu-based House seat again to primary another Democrat (again). This time Hanabusa's intended victim is Hawaii Governor Dave Ige. Hanabusa, politically, is a real pile of garbage garbage and her entire career has been an unending ode to corruption. Ige knew exactly how to deal with the contemptible Hanabusa: "I look forward to giving voters the opportunity to compare our records of achievement and visions for the future. I hope to build on the solid foundation my administration has established in our first three years."

Over the weekend, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported that "Hanabusa apparently aims to capitalize on a general, seemingly nonspecific discontent with the Ige administration thus far."

Tourism is strong, unemployment is low and even the crime rate is down, but still there is “a sense that the state is not particularly well run,” [director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii, David] Moore said. “Whether that’s fair or not, I don’t know, but I think that is the sense from voters. … Whether it’s fair or not, he’s stuck with how people feel generally about state government.”

Some longtime political observers, who spoke on condition that they not be identified, agreed.

“David has to get his story out, or he will be defined by the rumor mills and the Colleen Hanabusa people … that he is weak and ineffective, and he has not been,” said one state official who has been active in campaigns. “The story has to come out before it’s too late, because once it sets in the minds of the voters, it’s going to be hard to turn their thinking.”

...Democratic primaries tend to be dominated by specific groups such as union members and Americans of Japanese ancestry, and Ige and Hanabusa might divide those groups up between them.

Both Hanabusa and Ige are AJAs, and that particular ethnic vote pool may be divided in the primary. Ige received strong support from Okinawans in particular and the AJA community in general in the 2014 primary when he defeated Abercrombie.

Ige recently reached contract settlements with almost all of the public worker unions, which might help him secure the support of tens of thousands of teachers and other unionized state and county employees, but Hanabusa also has deep and long-standing ties with unions in Hawaii.

She's a candidate only EMILY's List and the special interests that bribe her could like. The upside to all this, regardless of who wins the governorship, is that Hanabusa will be out of Congress-- one less corrupt New Dem voting with Wall Street and the Republicans to make life harder for working families. So who will replace Hanabusa?

There are strong rumors that U.S. Senator Brian Schatz is recruiting-- or has already recruited-- Attorney General Doug Chin to run. He's gotten a lot of name recognition due to his lawsuits against Trump's travel ban. But the progressive grassroots is urging the most progressive member of the state legislature, Kaniela Ing to run for the seat. What kind of a political leader is Kaniela? Well for readers on the mainland, we last wrote about Kaniela 2 weeks ago in regard to reports that the DCCC is urging its conservative anti-single payer candidates to pretend to back Medicare-for-All. "The consultant class," he told us, "is obsessed with having candidates try to sound like America's most popular politician while somehow not upsetting their donors. Unfortunately for them, authenticity matters, and voters are smarter than they think. A silver tsunami of aging boomers is approaching, and single-payer, Medicare-for-all is America's only sensible and sustainable healthcare solution. Anything short will continue to allow big-pharma, corporate hospitals, and insurance companies to exploit the sick and their cash-strapped families into paying way too much for needed services. This in turn could have devastating effects for our overall economy. Democrats know that healthcare is a human right. If you want to reach Republicans, add that Medicare is the most efficient system we got, and that Medicare-for-all will save taxpayers $17 trillion. We have facts on our side and shouldn't run from them. Voters in both parties recognize that the pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, and corporate hospitals have too much power. The People's trust will go to the party or set of candidates willing to take them on."

It's also worth remembering that Kaniela was the only progressive elected official in the whole state to back Bernie's hugely successful primary campaign. (Yes, Tulsi Gabbard, for her own reasons, also endorsed Bernie but there is virtually nothing progressive about her other than that one bizarre moment.) The rest of the state's political elite backed Hillary, the status quo candidate, in the state's caucuses. And how did that work out? Not well for the status quo politicians. Although Wasserman Schultz had rigged the system to minimize the convention impact of Bernie's win, he took 20 of the state's 34 delegates, by winning an astounding 69.8% of caucus votes. On that day 23,530 voters caucused for Bernie, 10,125 for Hillary and 5,677 for Señor Trumpanzee.

Kaniela will be 28 at the end of December. He was first elected, the youngest member of the State House, at 23-years-old after taking on Hawaii's establishment New Dems and a tea-arty incumbent in a Republican district. He was grossly outspent, but won by knocking on over 15,000 doors. "While in office," he told us, "I stood on bold progressive values and actually got things done. I emerged as a leader on issues like marriage equality, climate change, regulating superpacs, voting reform, and reducing our economic reliance on war. I put myself on the line to endorse Bernie Sanders, faced a re-election primary where I was grossly outspent, and smashed my opponent by 26 points." We've been urging him to bring this energy to Congress... and it looks like he's getting closer to making a decision. This is what he told me this afternoon when I pressed him:

I come from a working poor background. We grew up as conservative Republicans. But that all changed when my father suddenly died at only 38. My mother was left with four kids and our grandmother to care for. We relied on the support of Social Security supplemental income, free school lunch, Medicaid, Pell Grants, and the support of dedicated public school teachers. I became a first generation college graduate and the youngest leader in the State House, but if Trump and the GOP have it their way, another poor kid like me may not even survive, let alone consider running for Congress.

Hawaii is becoming a place for the super rich, and leaders must stand up to the elites and billionaires' corporations, in both parties, in order to give everyday people a shot. I have always put the people ahead of powerful big-money donors, because it's the only way we will win the world we want to see.

If I do run, it will be on the boldest progressive platform Hawaii has ever seen. I will champion Our Revolution's People's Platform of Medicare-For-All, repealing Citizens United, legalizing marijuana, making college tuition-free, regulating Wall Street, opposing bad trade deals and oil pipelines, and investing trillions into infrastructure. This will be paid by ending expensive, counter productive wars-of-choice, savings and tax revenue from criminal justice reform, and demanding billionaires and corporations pay their fair share. If I run, my platform will further include banning corporate PAC money, guaranteeing jobs or a universal basic income, a national 100% renewable energy goal by 2050, and nationalized childcare. Hell yes, people here in Hawaii need a Representative to stand up to Donald Trump or any billionaires, but I can tell you this: if I do run, my campaign is going to go way beyond resistance. It won't be worth running unless I can offer the voters here a bold vision, and a new generation of progressive leadership for America.

Racist Fanatic William Colmer Has A Minority Majority School In Pascagoula Named After Him-- Plus Hawaii Update

The William M. Colmer Middle School is in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 46% of the students are African-Americans and 15% are Hispanic. 79% of the students are eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch program, somewhat higher than the average for Mississippi (71%). The school is named for Representative William M. Colmer who died on September 9, 1980 (age 90) and is buried at Machpelah Cemetery right their in Pascagoula. The students can walk over to the cemetery and visit their school's namesake. Perhaps they should read a little about the 20-terms congressman from Mississippi's Gulf Coast first though.

Colmer won a primary against Robert Hall in 1932, and that turned out to be a very good year for Democrats. Congressional Republicans lost 101 seats in the House that year. Colmer was elected with 94.5% of the vote-- the lowest percentage of any of Mississippi's 7 Members of Congress. He was swept into office as a New Deal Democrat but soon figured out that the New Deal not only helped whites, which he was fine with, but helped blacks… which he was very much not fine with. As time went by, he turned increasingly more reactionary and made opposing racial equality his life's work.

By all accounts he was a disgusting political figure and in no ways-- except the for "D" next to his name-- a Democrat. He was a blight on the party brand, just the way Blue Dogs, New Dems and corporate shills like Israel, Emanuel, Wasserman Schultz, Crowley and Hoyer are today. Even though Colmer endorsed Nixon against JFK, Humphrey and McGovern and endorsed Goldwater against LBJ, the idiot House Democrats allowed him to retain the Rules Committee chairmanship, putting him in a position to slow down desegregation for years. When he finally retired in 1972, his administrative assistant, Trent Lott-- another pile of racist dogcrap-- ran for his House seat and won… as a Republican-- the first elected there since 1873.

I didn't share this Colmer info with you just as another random example of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, although he was obviously that. I shared it because Karoli seemed so worked up Saturday about a Democratic judicial candidate in Connecticut, Anna Zubkova, whose husband, Rob Freeman, is a very public racist. "If whites had a voice in the government," he wrote, "there might not have been an Iraq war. There might not have been all these horrible trade agreements that are impoverishing everyone. We might have more fuel efficient cars, or more mass transit. Who knows what might have been?" I guess Debbie Wasserman Schultz would call it being part of her twisted conception of a "big tent party."


DREADFUL RESULTS IN HAWAII LAST NIGHT

Voter participation through absentee ballots was high, up over 12% since 2012. But that was the only good news there was yesterday. And although none of the candidates are as bad as William Colmer, it was a good night for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. As expected, progressive Governor Neil Abercrombie was defeated by centrist David Ige in a huge landslide, 143,835 (67%) to 67,368 (32%). Ige will face Republican Duke Aiona and extreme right-wing ex-Democrat (now Independent) Mufi Hannemann in November. It will be a tough race for him.

With all 113 precincts counted in the first congressional district, the race to replace Hanabusa was won by Mark Takai, a reactionary claiming to have seen the light and miraculously "turned" progressive.

• Mark Takai- 48,510 (45%)
• Donna Mercado Kim- 30,979 (29%)
• Stanley Chang- 11,023 (10%)
• Ikaika Anderson- 7,269 (7%)
• Will Espero- 4,166 (4%)
• Joey Manahan- 3,941 (4%)
• Kathryn Xian- 2,786 (3%)

The Congressional Progressive Caucus undercut progressive Stanley Chang at the last minute by making his endorsement into a dual endorsement of him and conservative homophobe and militarist Takai. The strategy, one of the key players told me, was to stop Donna Kim, an even worse reactionary. Although Takai and Kim have been allies in the legislature and although, when asked, she said if she couldn't win she would like to see Takai win, 2 Japanese-American Progressive Caucus members claimed they could guide Takai in a progressive direction. The last time I heard such a patently spurious argument was when another Progressive Caucus member wanted to endorse Republican-turned-fake-Dem Patrick Murphy in 2012, telling me he could guide Murphy. Murphy did win-- and immediately joined the GOP-leaning, Wall Street-owned and operated New Dems. Murphy has amassed one of the worst voting records of any Democrat in Congress-- a dismal ProgressivePunch crucial vote score of 48.17-- and has worked consistently to undermine progressive values and principles inside the caucus. This cycle he is already the 3rd biggest recipient-- $801,750-- of shady cash from the Financial Sector, right after crooked conservative sell-outs Joe Crowley and Jim Himes.

Even worse news is the still undetermined U.S. Senate race, where corrupt New Dem Colleen Hanabusa has come close to unseating progressive champion Brian Schatz. There are 2 rural precincts on the Big Island that couldn't vote because of Hurricane Iselle-- polling sites at Hawaii Paradise Community Center and Keone-opoko Elementary School-- so it will be some days before the election is decided. Democrats there will vote by absentee ballot. Right now, as best I can tell, the 245 of 247 precincts have given Schatz the tiniest of leads-- 105,794 (49.38%) to 104,008 (48.55%). He's leading her by 1,786 votes and it's a real stretch seeing her make up that kind of a lead in just two precincts.

As of the July 20 reporting deadline, Schatz had raised $4,914,576, spent $3,937,606 and was sitting on $976,970. Hanabusa had raised $2,876,245, spent $2,408,572 and was sitting on $522,566. She wrote herself a check for $117,000 out of the personal bribes she and her crooked husband have taken from developers and other shady operators who have financed her sleazy career. Conservative Democratic group EMILY's List put another $697,920 into independent expenditures on Hanabusa's behalf, including a $75,000 push this week. Environmental and progressive groups spent $591,353 to bolster Schatz.

Again, Hanabusa isn't as bad as Colmer. But this is 2014, not 1950 and she's about as bad as you can be and still legitimately call yourself a Democrat today. Yesterday was a terrible day for Hawaii. At least EMILY's List failed-- and failed miserably-- to foist Donna Mercado Kim on Hawaii. They have become the single most destructive player inside the Democratic Party coalition, almost never a force for progressive politics-- almost always a force for reactionary thinking, a real corrupt, money-based pillar of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.


UPDATE: Who Are The Voters In The 2 Precincts?

The voters in the remaining precincts aren't exactly off the grid but many tend to be anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-GMO, pro-marijuana legalization, and anti-geothermal-- not exactly Hanabusa's crowd, no matter how you slice it or dice it. And she would have to beat Schatz in the two precincts on the Big Island by a 2-1 margin to take the lead, which isn't likely, no matter how much more money EMILY's List throws into her campaign. This post should give you a better idea about who the 8,000 people are who haven't voted yet. Excerpt: "In our district (Puna), Dennis got 60% of the caucus vote. On our island (Hawaii), 50%. In our state (Hawaii), 33%." Probably not admirers of militarist and corporate shill Colleen Hanabusa.

In Hawaii, Today's The Day… Two Moments Of Truth For Progressives

Today is primary day in Hawaii. Iselle hit Friday but had lost some ferocity and came in as a tropic storm. With the exception of the polling sites at Hawaii Paradise Community Center and Keone-opoko Elementray School on the Big Island, all polling sites will be open from 7AM 'til 6 PM. Hurricane Julio is also weakening slightly but may hit the Big Island tomorrow. The rare twin storms shouldn't hold down turnout in the election. And today's contests couldn't be clearer. The Senate race features two well-known politicians, one progressive (Senator Brian Schatz) and one from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party (conservative New Dem Colleen Hanabusa). We have been comparing and contrasting their positions all through the cycle and we have also pointed out a career predicated on corruption in Hanabusa's case. There are three main issues voters should have foremost in their minds when they walk into the polling station: Social Security, health care reform and Climate Change/the environment. Before we look at those again though, let's look again at the difference between the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party and the Republican wing of the party.

Schatz has been endorsed by Howard Dean, Elizabeth Warren, President Obama, virtually every Democrat in the Senate, MoveOn, the Sierra Club, Climate Hawks Vote and, of course, Blue America. Hanabusais the candidate of the corrupt conservative New Dems, a Wall Street owned Beltway operation funded by drug companies, banksters and the Military Industrial Complex. So far this cycle, among the New Dems' biggest donors are predatory Wall Street corporations with big agendas, like CitiBroup, Mortgage Bankers Assn, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Investment Co Institute, National Venture Capital Assn, Deloitte LLP, US Bancorp, Visa, Prudential Financial, and Goldman Sachs. These are the "people" Hanabusa is indebted to, not the working families of Hawaii. And that explains her record in Congress and why it has been so very different from Senator Schatz's.

Let's start with Social Security. Schatz is a leader in the Senate on expanding Social Security. Hanabusa voted for the Simpson-Bowles plan that would cut Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 69. She favors chained CPI which would cut the cost of living allowances for retired people. That makes Wall Street very, very happy-- which explains why the've poured so much money into her shady career. But what about seniors who depend on these cost of living increases when prices rise for food, energy and medicine?

And speaking of medicine, Hanabusa has been a go-to shill for Big Phrama. She repaid companies like Amgen, UnitedHealth, Abbott, Wellpoint, tax cheats AbbVie Pharmaceuticals, and WalMart for financing her career by backing efforts to allow big drug companies to get massive giveaways from Medicare-- and sleazy Hanabusa staffers got caught illegally coordinating activities with drug company cronies. Schatz's record couldn't be more different. He co-sponsored a plan, supported by the AARP, to put Medicare on stronger financial footing and stop powerful drug companies from ripping off federal taxpayers. One works for the drug companies-- and to line her own pockets; one works for for ordinary families in Hawaii.

Not a single environmental group has endorsed Hanabusa. Every one of them-- who rarely agree on anything-- has endorsed Schatz. He's been one of the Senate's most effective champions on environmental issues, supporting the Clean Energy Initiative which tripled Hawai'i's renewable energy production from 6% to 18%, and supporting a bill that could lead to charging oil manufacturers a fee for emitting carbon. That work has earned him the endorsement of Al Gore and many local and national environmental groups. Meanwhile, Hanabusa voted for a coal-industry-backed bill to block enforcement of the Clean Air Act-- and cited it on her campaign website as one of her proudest votes.

Half Hawaii's voters also get to pick a replacement for Hanabusa in the Honolulu-based first CD. This should be day too. There's one progressive in the race: Stanley Chang, fighting off two grotesque conservatives from the Republican wing of the party: Donna Mercado Kim and Mark Takai. Stanley's absentee ballot push was easily the strongest in the race and he was up on TV before anyone else and started a serious field operation before anyone else. Partially due to the storms, but partially due to the especially nasty vitriol from EMILY's List in the Hanabusa race against Schatz, turnout looks depressed. That makes Stanley's aggressive field operation all the more valuable. The depressed vote today could push the share of the absentee ballots from a normal 50% to as high as 60 or even 70%. That bodes very well for Team Chang and much less well for the lazy efforts by his two main competitors. Let's hope we have two big victories to celebrate tomorrow, one for Brian Schatz and one for Stanley Chang.

Colleen Hanabusa's Crazy War Against The Environment

New Dem Colleen Hanabusa has built a political career not based on values or principles but on mutual backscratching and ugly corruption. She desperately, even shrilly, wants everyone to ignore the fact that when the Sierra Club, Climate Hawks Vote, Ocean Champions and the League of Conservation Voters endorsed Brian Schatz for senator, they compared both their environmental records and found his ideal and hers… far from ideal. She would also like voters in the August 9th Hawaii primary to ignore that MoveOn, the PCCC, DFA and Blue America all sited Schatz's work on environmental protection when they endorsed him. Every single U.S. Senator that cares about the environment endorsed Schatz, from Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Barbara Boxer and Sheldon White House to all the Senate Democratic leaders, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray.

Not one environmental group is backing Hanabusa. Not one progressive group is backing Hanabusa. Not one senator is backing Hanabusa. And the only Members of the House who have been trying to help her are Rahm Emanuel puppet Tammy Duckworth and right-wing warmongers and anti-environment fanatics Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Randy Forbes (R-VA). Yes, two Republicans, that's what she's got… and the Laborers Union backing her because of her support for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Remember, the conservative running against Schatz isn't a Republican. Hanabusa is a New Dem from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, a purely transactional character. Her husband, John Souza, serves as her bagman. Honolulu political insiders know that the two of them are as thick as thieves with real estate developer Jeffrey Stone, who has spent and raised more for Hanabusa's political career than anyone else. She and Souza take good care of her contributors, regardless of environmental impact. In 2011, at a time when Maui’s Hawaiian Cane & Sugar's parent company (Alexander & Baldwin) was one of her largest donors, she voted with her Republican buddies to delay implementation of EPA rules governing air quality in buildings from industrial boiler systems-- two of which Hawaiian Cane & Sugar was using.

Yesterday the Star-Advertiser ran an important piece by Derrick DePledge differentiating between Schatz and Hanabusa on environmental issues. The first paragraph is very ominous for Hanabusa, who has been running away from her repulsive record and trying to twist it out of shape for months: "U.S. Rep. Colleen Hana­busa was one of just 41 House Democrats in October 2011 to vote to delay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's tougher clean air standards on industrial boilers." She claims her vote with the Republicans against the EPA was to save the jobs at a sugar mill (and not just for her campaign donors).

In trying to justify her vote against the Clean Air Act, Hanabusa falsely claims that this vote saved the plantation which is total nonsense. Mazie Hirono, Daniel Inouye and Dan Akaka all voted the other way on this bill, and the plantation is still alive and well. The vote clearly demonstrates Hanabusa's total lack of commitment to the environment. Combine this with her vote to clear cut the Tongass Forest and her support for drilling in ANWR and it paints a pretty dim picture of a typical lockstep New Dem shill for Wall Street interests. (As does this poll question from PPP:)

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, Hanabusa's opponent in the Democratic primary, argues that Hanabusa made a false choice between the environment and the economy. The EPA was already in the process of revising the rule based on public feedback.

"The EPA has shown a willingness to be flexible when it comes to Hawaii," the senator said. "And if she wanted to get the attention of the EPA, there was no need to undermine the Clean Air Act and vote with tea party Republicans."

During the primary, the two Democrats have disagreed over votes on Social Security, the Bipartisan Budget Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Arctic drilling. But their dispute over the vote to delay the EPA's rule on industrial boilers, perhaps more than any other, gets closest to illustrating what each candidate believes is their own strength and, more importantly, their opponent's weakness.

…In Hawaii, environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, which has endorsed Schatz, have been concerned about air pollution at the HC&S mill. In addition to emissions from the boilers, HC&S also conducts pre-harvest cane burning.

In June, the state Department of Health cited HC&S for more than 400 alleged violations of state clean air rules between 2009 and 2013 and assessed a $1.3 million penalty. The company has said that any violations were unintentional and plans to contest the penalty as excessive.

Hanabusa considers the vote on the EPA's rule on industrial boilers one of several that demonstrate her independence and her ability to look deeper into federal legislation and see the potential impact on Hawaii. She said she would cast the same vote again today.

"It's not an easy vote to do," the congresswoman said. "But it's a vote that I feel had to be done. And the EPA slowed down. And I think the EPA needed it, too, to be able to slow down what it was doing, because it was under court order. And to come up with a set of rules that I believe is really workable."

Schatz counters that the issue was not as complicated as Hanabusa suggests.

"This was not a close call," the senator said. "Everybody wants to support the (HC&S) plantation, but there's nobody in the congressional delegation that thought it was necessary to undermine the Clean Air statute in order to make sure that it was implemented well."

Schatz said Hanabusa "continues to think that we have to make a choice between a clean environment and a strong economy," adding, "And she's flat wrong. That is not the choice that we have to make. We can and should fight for clean air and clean water and strong economic growth at the same time."

And, of course, it isn't just Schatz who has noticed how dishonest Hanabusa is. In February, 2012, the Center for American Progress commented on this very bill and said it "essentially puts the interests of polluters over that of the health and safety of American families. It creates enormous uncertainty and goes far beyond providing the EPA with extra time to finalize their rulemaking. More troubling, this bill would delay and could substantially weaken long-overdue public health protections by allowing the continued emissions of carcinogens and other toxic air pollutants that can cause developmental harm and other serious health effects." DC daily The Hill noted delved a little deeper into the consequences of Hanabusa's support for the Republican efforts to gut EPA rules. The standards imposed by boiler MACT rules, to limit emissions of harmful air pollutants from industrial boilers and incinerators, they wrote, go after mercury, acid gases and fine particulate matter, or soot, from boilers and incinerators. "The agency said the rules would affect about 1 percent of the nation's boilers. It added the rules would yield public health benefits, preventing 8,100 premature deaths and 5,100 heart attacks per year beginning in 2015."

And maybe this is why EMILY's List is rolling out the dirty campaign tactics on behalf of Hanabusa now. It's called desperation-- and it was just released this morning. When Republicans see a poll like this, they whine that PPP is a Democratic-affiliated polling firm. Is that Hanabusa's complaint too?

Hawaii: A Bastion Of Progressivism-- Let's Keep It That Way

Hawaii's primary is August 9, a week from Saturday. Saturday? Sure, that's how to encourage voter participation in a democracy-- have the elections when people aren't working. Conservatives are generally terrified at the prospect of more people voting-- especially working class people-- so they tend to block legislation like Hawaii's. Hawaii is a pretty progressive state, first to mass a $10.10 minimum wage, first to start the process of marriage equality. The Republican Party is pretty moribund there and the Democratic Party has been in charge since 1962. In recent times Bill Clinton won twice, George Bush lost twice and Obama won twice-- with over 70% both times. There are no Republicans in federal office, only one Republican state senator (out of 25) and only 7 Republicans in the 51 member House. In the last U.S. Senate race, pitting progressive Democrat Mazie Hirono against conservative (not extremist) Republican Governor Linda Lingle, Hirono beat Lingle 269,489 (63%) to 160,994 (37%).

That's not to say Hawaii doesn't have a powerful conservative faction working against the interests of working families. The problem is that they're smart enough to embed themselves in the Democratic Party and tell lo-info voters that they are also "progressives." So you wind up with shady career politicians like Ed Case, Colleen Hanabusa, Mufi Hannemann, Donna Mercado Kim, Mark Takai, who would be Republicans in any other state, festering as Democrats in Hawaii. Donna Kim, for example, is the state Senate president but just voted against increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 and against marriage equality for Hawaii's big LGBT community. And now she wants to bring her right-wing bigotry to Washington to replace fellow conservative Colleen Hanabusa, the anti-Social Security New Dem who is being pushed by EMILY's List against progressive Senator Brian Schatz.

Schatz, who has been endorsed by President Obama, Elizabeth Warren and every senator who has endorsed in the race, is the lead sponsor of the Strengthening Social Security Act, which would increase benefits by an average of $65-70/month and extend the viability of the Social Security system by removing the wage cap on Social Security, so that all Americans pay their fair share, even rich people. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare endorsed him because of this bill and because of Hanabusa's awful vote in favor of the Simpson-Bowles budget framework and her eagerness to "compromise" away hard earned benefits for working people and seniors, primarily by raising the age of retirement and by recalculating down the cost of living adjustments for retired and handicapped people, which is the Republican position, not the Democratic position.

Hanabusa and her shady lobbyist supporters have been trying to deceive voters in Hawaii by claiming that Schatz's vote on the Bipartisan Budget Act in 2013 cut Social Security benefits by extending provider cuts under Medicare for 2 years. This is total nonsense, and Hanabusa is trying to misrepresent her vote in opposition to the BBA as a vote to protect Medicare and Social Security. Although the BBA was not perfect, it rolled back sequestration cuts and Democrats would not agree to any deal unless Social Security and Medicare benefits were not touched. That's exactly what happened in the deal. As a result, every Senate Democrat and President Obama supported the legislation. Essentially, Hanabusa joined Senate Tea Party Republicans like Ted Cruz on this vote. On top of that, the "cuts" to Medicare/Social Security that Hanabusa is squawking about are actually decreases in provider reimbursements under Medicare that were extended from 2021 and 2023. These provider decreases were actually established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 which Hanabusa neglects to mention that she voted for. Essentially, she voted to establish sequestration and Medicare reimbursement cuts, spent all of 2013 complaining about the negative impacts of sequestration, and then when she had a chance to help fix the worst aspects of sequestration that she helped create, she voted against BBA in a thinly veiled effort to create a difference in position between her and Schatz.

And it gets worse since Hanabusa also bitterly complained that the BBA cut military retiree pensions. Senator Schatz and other Democrats didn't like this aspect of the legislation, and after the BBA passed, Schatz introduced legislation to eliminate that portion of the BBA. This repeal passed-- with Hanabusa and other conservatives voting against the repeal. Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America said this about Hanabusa's Republican posture on Social Security:

Hanabusa has been desperately trying to evade responsibility for her vote to cut Social Security and Medicare. At a recent debate, Schatz looked directly at Hanabusa and asked if she regretted her vote for the Simpson-Bowles plan to cut Social Security. She tried to say her vote wouldn't have cut benefits or raise the retirement age.

Schatz then pulled out his trump card. He read out a letter the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare wrote to her, pleading with her to vote against the Simpson-Bowles plan that would have cut benefits and raised the retirement age. The facts are clear-- Hanabusa can't be trusted to protect Social Security.

Hanabusa's claim that Schatz voted to cut Social Security benefits because he voted to extend Medicare reimbursement cuts by two years is typical, sleazy Beltway garbage. Medicare and Social Security are separate programs with different funding and trust funds, so it is absolutely false that Schatz voted to cut Social Security benefits. He's been endorsed by all the organizations voting to protect and expand Social Security. She's backed by conservatives like herself. "The Republicans in the House and the Tea Party," said Schatz, "seem bound and determined to undermine Social Security and I think it's important that for we Democrats in the Senate to stake out a position that not only are we not entertaining cutting Social Security, but we ought to be thinking about ways to enhance the program-- both for the beneficiaries and for the trust fund to be healthy over the long run."

Although EMILY's List promised Hanabusa they could "deliver" Elizabeth Warren's endorsement if she ran against Schatz, Warren not only refused, she enthusiastically endorsed Schatz. In a stunning rebuke to EMILY's List and Hanabusa's deceitful campaign, this week she told her supporters that "I am proud to stand with Senator Mazie Hirono, Senator Brian Schatz, and a growing number in Congress who are committed to protecting and expanding Social Security benefits. The most recent discussion about cutting benefits has focused on something called the Chained-CPI. Supporters of the Chained-CPI say that it’s a more accurate way of measuring cost of living increases for seniors. That statement is simply not true. Chained CPI is just a fancy way of saying cut benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has developed a measure of the real impact of inflation on seniors. It’s called the CPI-E. If we adopted it today, it would generally increase benefits for our retirees-- not cut them. In the end, this is not just about math. It’s about our values. If we want a robust middle class-- a middle class that continues to serve as the backbone of our country-- then we must take the retirement crisis seriously."

As we've discussed before, Hanabusa was one of the congressmembers from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who refused to sign the Grayson-Takano Social Security pledge or to back Schatz's Strengthening Social Security Act. And on the same Saturday voters in Hawaii are choosing between Hanabusa and Schatz, they are also picking Hanabusa's replacement for the first congressional district (basically, Honolulu). Blue America, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, DFA and People for the American Way have all endorsed Stanley Chang against two well-funded conservative Democrats, Donna Kim and Mark Takai. Chang, who was one of Elizabeth Warren's students at Harvard Law, has backed the same ideas for strengthening and extending Social Security as Schatz. When we asked him this morning, this is what he told us:

I categorically oppose all cuts to Social Security and I am proud to have repeatedly pledged support for the Grayson-Takano Letter, which reads in part: “We will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits-- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.” For me, this promise is the first step in bold strategy to not only protect and defend Social Security, but to expand its critical benefits so that all of our kupuna can retire in dignity after a lifetime of work.

Social Security is the bedrock of the safety net our seniors have earned. The common-sense progressive solution that will ensure Social Security’s solvency for decades to come would be to “scrap the cap.” Currently, only the first $117,000 of income is taxed for Social Security, but if we eliminate this loophole, we will have the necessary funds to ensure that our seniors remain healthy and financially secure.

I am opposed to using so-called “chained CPI” to calculate cost-of-living adjustments. This is merely another way to enact deep, harsh cuts to Social Security, which keeps 22 million seniors out of poverty.

You can help Stanley Chang with his crucial get out the vote effort here and you can do the same for Brian Schatz here. They're both from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.



Crucial Primary In Hawaii-- August 9

Down in every poll, unable to get even a single woman senator to endorse her rotgut campaign against progressive Senator Brian Schatz, corrupt New Dem Colleen Hanabusa is eager to talk about anything other than her record in Congress because her record is so awful. She's talks more about what she did in the state Senate than about doing anything in Congress. That's because she hasn't done anything in Congress-- at least not for her constituents. Although she's always at the front of the line when corporate lobbyists are handing out their greasy checks, she's a quintessential backbencher. Hanabusa has passed exactly one bill since being elected to Congress-- naming a post office after former Rep. Cec Heftel-- and she has never introduced legislation on Social Security, college affordability, gun control, or clean energy.

Since she has no record of her own to talk about, the last debate saw her accusing Senator Schatz of inflating his record regarding his work on the tourism subcommittee, but when she was confronted by the facts of her own misstatements by Hawaii News Now, her own campaign chair admitted she spoke without knowing the facts. Which is, after all, a hallmark of Colleen Hanabusa's career.

Since absentee ballots were mailed out to 100,000 voters in Hawaii over the weekend, we thought we'd offer a look back over the Hanabusa campaign through the DWT coverage that started last April when Beltway anti-progressive operation EMILY's List recruited her to run against Schatz.

Hanabusa, an opportunist burning with ambition, was first elected to the House in 2010. She joined the conservative, Big Business-aligned New Dems and ran up a mediocre record as a backbencher with little to no influence. Rather than follow the trail being blazed by fellow congresswoman Mazie Hirono, a progressive champion, Hanabusa stuck to a path to nowhere started by much-disliked right-wing former Democratic Congressman Ed Case. Yesterday she announced she will give up her House seat to run for Brian Schatz's seat in the Senate.

Hanabusa had been considering primary challenges to either Schatz or Abercrombie. A source close to her campaign said Monday that Hanabusa had decided on a Senate campaign and was informing close allies.

A primary between Schatz, 40, and Hanabusa, 61, would evoke generational as well as political fault lines within the Democratic Party. Schatz, a progressive, has the potential to build seniority in the Senate over a generation. Hanabusa, a more traditional liberal, will contend that her experience prepares her to have an immediate impact.

By "traditional liberal," they mean corrupt conservative. The only mark Hanabusa has made in Congress, other than being a lap dog for K Street and a predictable New Dem, was pioneering a way around ethics rules to make money personally from her campaign. Hanabusa "collected significant amounts of money in interest from personal loans she made to her campaign. In addition, her campaign reimbursed her husband thousands of dollars in expenses."

Hawaii's primary is August 9. These posts should give you the ammunition you need to talking about this race with friends, co-workers, neighbors and relatives about why Hanabusa is a terrible choice for Hawaii and for the U.S. Senate and why every single U.S.senator who has decided to endorse has endorsed Brian Schatz, despite intense pressure from EMILY's List and from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, and why President Obama is urging voters in Hawaii to reelect Schatz.

• Hanabusa's disgraceful vote against the privacy protection Schatz and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are fighting for.

• Hanabusa's political cowardice on LGBT equality Why GOP warmongers and deep-pocketed defense contractors and arms manufacturers are backing Hanabusa

• Hanabusa's second thoughts on giving up her safe House seat for the Senate run she realized she would probably lose

• Hanabusa constituents petitioning her to resign from the corrupt conservative New Dems and work for Hawaii's ordinary working families instead

• Which candidate has a better record on Choice and on women's issues?

• Hanabusa's criminal activities on behalf of the corrupt drug lobbyists

• The two wings of the Democratic Party-- Hanabusa and the Republican wing and Schatz and the progressive wing

• A look at the shady Beltway insiders who are pushing-- and financing-- Hanabusa's run

• Why feminists are abandoning Hanabusa and backing Schatz-- it's all in their records

• Schatz/Hanabusa-- compare and contrast: the records

• PCCC endorses Schatz

• Hanabusa on the wrong side of the battle for raising the minimum wage and how she worked with Republicans and against workers to lower the increase

• Why President Obama endorsed Brian Schatz and not Colleen Hanabusa

• Hanabusa's bipartisanship means plotting with GOP warmongers and arms manufacturers

• The difference between bipartisanship and selling out

• Why progressive icon Elizabeth Warren ignored EMILY's List and endorsed Brian Schatz over Hanabusa

• How her record on pollution is hurting Hanabus'a chances against environmental champion Brian Schatz

• How voting records count in elections between incumbents and why voters are aghast at Hanabusa's

• Hanabusa refuses to tell Ben Cayetano that anti-Semitism has no place in Hawaii politics

• How her corporate-backed "free" trade agenda hurts Hawaii-- and her own campaign

• Hanabusa's less than stellar record on protecting Social Security

It's still not too late to help persuade people you know how important this race is and how much better Schatz is than Hanabusa. And it's not too late to contribute to Schatz's get out the vote efforts. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) explains the difference between the two wings of the Democratic Party:

Hawaii-- A Simple 6-Minute Video Shows The Difference Between Progressives And New Dems On Social Security And Other Issues

There may not be a more important Democratic primary this summer than the August 9th election in Hawaii as incumbent progressive Senator Brian Schatz faces a challenge from Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, a leader of the Wall Street-owned New Democrat Coalition, the predominant component of the Beltway's Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

They differ on a range of important issues, including the environment, war and peace and LGBT equality.

But it’s on Social Security where their differences-- and the differences between progressives and New Dems generally-- are perhaps most stark, as seen in a six-minute excerpt, up top, from a recent Schatz-Hanabusa debate. Last year Hanabusa voted for an amendment by Blue Dog Congressman Kurt Schrader that supported the Social Security-cutting recommendations of former Republican Senator Alan Simpson and Morgan Stanley board member Erskine Bowles.

As Schatz pointed out, Hanabusa was asked to vote against the amendment the day before the vote in a letter by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. But Simpson and Bowles asked her to vote for it. And, consistent with the New Dems’ post-2012-election announcement that "we’re ready to deal," Hanabusa voted for the amendment.

Schatz described it, simply and accurately, as a bad vote.

During the debate, Hanabusa defended her vote in three ways. First, she said the legislative process is confusing (implying she voted for it by mistake). Second, she made the surprising (and obviously false) statement that "there’s never been any threat to Social Security." Third, she claimed that “Social Security is dear to every Democrat’s heart” and it was therefore unfair to question her commitment.

Schatz noted many Blue Dogs and New Democrats have been eager to join Republican calls for Social Security "reform." Trusting her because she has a D after her name is dangerous. But he went further. He said it wasn’t enough to be for the status quo. He made an obviously well-researched and heartfelt case for expanding Social Security benefits, which he’s actually already proposed. His stance-- not standing pat, but wanting to do more-- is reminiscent of Patsy Mink’s famous quote on progressive leadership:

"It is easy enough to vote right and be consistently with the majority. But it is more often more important to be ahead of the majority, and this means being willing to cut the first furrow in the ground and stand alone for a while if necessary."

Of course, Hanabusa even has trouble with even the "easy enough" part of that, ranking in the bottom half of House Democrats in ProgressivePunch rankings, despite coming from a 70-percent Obama district. Schatz has been endorsed by feminist scholar Wendy Mink, who happens to be Patsy’s daughter, partly because of his progressive work on Social Security.

After the debate, Hanabusa sent Time Warner lobbyist Peter Boylan (on leave to work on her campaign) on a damage-control mission. Apparently enamored with her inane statement that all Dems are good on Social Security, Boylan helped her litter social media with a misleading graphic displaying the quote. And they flat-out lied about her vote for the Simpson-Bowles amendment authored by Congressman Schrader. Schatz precisely noted she voted for the Schrader amendment to H.R. 444; he said nothing about the final vote on H.R. 444 itself. Here’s the rash, duplicitous tweet (just another low-class moment in a scurrilous campaign in which Hanabusa can’t even bring herself to offer Schatz a genuine compliment):

.@brianschatz claims Colleen voted for HR444 when in fact she did NOT. http://t.co/Ss4QIor1lu #HISen #Hanabusa2014 #FactCheck
— Colleen Hanabusa (@ColleenHanabusa) July 8, 2014

Advocacy groups aren’t falling for her act:

.@NCPSSM endorses @brianschatz: "We need a champion in Washington for Social Security" #HIsen pic.twitter.com/8bK5UTpnpM
— Team Schatz (@SchatzforHawaii) May 27, 2014

Neither are Hawaii voters:

POLL: Hawaii voters moving toward Schatz in U.S. Senate race http://t.co/CrF7Bebz3n
— HuffPost Hawaii (@HuffPostHawaii) May 29, 2014

One can only wonder what an increasingly desperate Hanabusa will try in the primary’s final debate, Thursday at 7 p.m. HST (10 p.m. PDT). Watch the live stream at hawaiinewsnow.com or monitor the debate via the lively #HIsen hashtag. But first, chip in to help Schatz get out the vote.

Wall Street-Owned New Dems Work With Singapore’s Repressive Government In Push For TPP

Singapore has long had one of the world’s most repressive governments. And things aren’t getting better anytime soon.

But Singapore's government supports "free trade," and worships at its alter. So Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is popular in Washington, D.C. and on Wall Street. He was in town recently to be congratulated for his abiding commitment to trade. He took advantage of the occasion to lecture Americans on the "need" for Congress to approve the "vital" Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The secretive TPP would be the world’s largest trade agreement-- and would ignite a worldwide race to the bottom in labor and environmental standards. It’s vociferously opposed by all major unions and environmental groups as well as organizations and individuals concerned with maintaining U.S. sovereignty, including many Democrats, or at least Democrats from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.

However, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the New Dems of New Democrat Coalition, composed of sold-out corporate shills, is furiously pushing for the TPP just as hard as Prime Minister Lee. Indeed, no issue dominates the New Dems’ boring social media accounts than “free trade.” (How boring? The New Dems have less than 500 likes on Facebook. The more grassroots-oriented Congressional Progressive Caucus, in contrast, has more than 13,000 likes. On Twitter, most of the New Dem followers are the same right-leaning institutions, lobbyists and political hacks that the New Dems retweet all day-- such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Third Way and the Progressive (sic) Policy Institute.

Enjoyed hosting @HouseNewDems yesterday for discussion on #TPP & its strategic importance to the #US & the region. KB @USTR #trade
— Kim Beazley (@AusAmbUSA) June 24, 2014

@politico: @HouseNewDems and @WhiteHouse "called for renewal of #Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program to help retrain workers." #TPA #TPP
— House New Dems (@HouseNewDems) January 13, 2014

.@RepRonKind: @HouseNewDems pushing "robust trade agenda" that levels playing field 4 US workers & biz. @Republic3_0 http://t.co/wGsiU1LkCI.
— Ed Gerwin (@EdGerwin) June 23, 2014

So, it was unsurprising to see that Prime Minister Lee granted an audience to Hawaii's most conservative federal official Colleen Hanabusa,, a New Dems’ task force chair, along with reactionary Virginia Congressman Randy Forbes. Hanabusa and Forbes, who are close partners and friends in the nature of John McCain and Lindsey Graham, mostly care about military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Of course, the loosening of trade rules to be provided by the TPP can only benefit the defense contractors who are enriched by military expansion-- and who, in turn, have been extraordinarily generous to a set of politicians like Hanabusa and Forbes.

Hanabusa took to Facebook to kiss his authoritarian ass and heap praise on Prime Minister Lee, including for his leadership on "international trade":

Today’s discussion with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reaffirmed the critical role the U.S. plays in ensuring stability within the Asia-Pacific, through a continuous military presence, which facilitates our economic, diplomatic, and humanitarian capabilities. 

Prime Minister Lee spoke of Singapore’s leading role in international trade and highlighted the importance that the U.S. Navy plays by maintaining freedom of navigation in the region. He also recalled the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and how the people of Singapore knew that help had come once a U.S. aircraft carrier arrived on the scene.

We must understand that as a region, our security and prosperity are increasingly tied to each other, and that a robust, long-term presence of American forces in the region has ensured peace and stability in Asia for the past sixty years. Expanding this presence over the next decade to meet 21st century security challenges is vital to U.S. and global interests. I thank Prime Minister Lee for taking the time to meet with us today.

Though many in the U.S. progressive community are heartened by efforts to slow or derail the TPP, Prime Minister Lee is confident he, the Republicans and the slimy New Dems will win:

Mr Lee also noted that talks on the TPP are still on track to wrap up this year. The comprehensive free trade pact covers a dozen nations, including Singapore and the US, which in total make up 40 per cent of the world economy and a third of global trade.

There is a "good chance" that TPP negotiations will be completed this year, Mr Lee said.

"We are almost there, and I'm encouraged by President (Barack) Obama's promise to constructively resolve the remaining issues and I think we should be able to conclude it this year."

Mr Lee had reiterated the need for US support to complete the TPP at a dialogue organised by the US think-tank Council on Foreign Relations earlier in the day.

Hanabusa is bucking for a promotion, as she’s trying to oust U.S. Senator Brian Schatz in Hawaii’s August 9 primary. Schatz, like most progressives, is concerned about the TPP. This is a race that may help determine whether the TPP is actually approved. Blue America has joined many labor and environmental groups in endorsing Schatz.

Early voting in Hawaii starts in less than a month, and Senator Brian Schatz could use help in getting out the progressive vote.

Hanabusa with bagman/husband John Souza

Oh, Please! Not More EMILY's List Anti-Semitism!

EMILY's List has a reputation for being the dirtiest players in politics-- as bad or worse than the Republican sociopaths employed by the Kochs and Adelson. The difference is that the man-haters at EMILY's List don't deploy their vicious nature against Republicans or against conservative Democrats-- only against progressive men in office. Especially Jewish progressive men in office.

EMILY's List was once an essential part of the progressive coalition. Their battles were the progressive community's battles and they were widely admired. There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then. We didn't really pick up on it until 2008, when EMILY's List recruited Nikki Tinker, a very conservative woman-- in conjunction with the corrupt reactionary Harold Ford Machine-- to run against pro-Choice champion, Congressman Steve Cohen in Memphis, Tennessee. Cohen is, by far, the most progressive federal elected official in Tennessee. Nikki Tinker is marginally pro-Choice by otherwise a raging conservative. Her campaign was so off-the-rails-- in terms of overt racism and anti-semitism directed at Cohen-- that then-Senator Obama took time out from his own campaign to embrace and endorse Cohen against EMILY's List's deranged onslaught against him. In the end, EMILY's List members were so nauseated by the group's tactics that they were forced to rescind their endorsement. But they waited until election day to do it! Obama, sickened by the tactics, had already said "These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It's time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country."

A politics driven by negativity and division is the EMILY's List trademark. They used it against Eric Garcetti, Marianne Williamson and Ted Lieu here in L.A. When I heard EMILY's List was sending one of their most thuggish operatives to Honolulu to take over the Hanabusa campaign against Senator Brian Schatz, I warned friends of mine in Hawaii that Brian would probably come under some kind of racist attack. And sure enough…

Hanabusa, already a power in the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, was a corrupt state senator when Cayetano was governor. Today he's part of her election team and has been functioning as a Hanabusa/EMILY's List attack dog against Schatz. Since losing the last Honolulu mayor's race, he's become increasingly conservative-- almost as conservative as Hanabusa-- and increasingly bitter.

Most of his criticisms of Schatz have been petty--he's too young-- and absurd. Cayetano complained on Civil Beat.com that Schatz once refused to pick up George Ariyoshi, another former governor and current Hanabusa supporter, at the airport.  But now his bitterness has got the better of him. In support of Hanabusa's flailing campaign, Cayetano was on Facebook attacking Schatz (and his bête noire, ex-Governor Linda Lingle) for being Jewish.

So far not a word from Hanabusa or EMILY's List disowning Cayetano or his anti-semitism. And, needless to say, Hanabusa hasn't returned the $1,000 he recently contributed to her campaign. Does EMILY's List plan on rescinding their endorsement of Hanabusa on primary day? Their candidate Nikki Tinker didn't even break 20% against Steve Cohen.

A desperate Hanabusa dancing around Cayetano's deranged anti-Semitism

UPDATE… And Lies

The desperation of Hanabusa’s campaign is seen in her last-minute attempt to re-define herself as a dove prior to the August 9 primary election. Today I got an e-mail from the ex-Time Warner lobbyist she has working for her claiming, falsely, that "since 2002, Colleen has opposed the Iraq war." Hanabusa, an unabashed warmonger who chairs the National Security Task Force for the Wall Street-owned New Democrat Coalition, may have finally realized that being pro-war doesn’t play well in Hawaii Democratic primaries. The e-mail can only be described as duplicitous, implying that she has always taken a pro-peace position on Iraq.

That’s just not true.

In 2006, there were two troop-withdrawal proposals on the table.

Bush’s commander in Iraq, General George Casey, proposed a gradual reduction in troops, putting off any substantial reduction until December 2007. Starting in late 2005 and through the ’06 elections, Rep. John Murtha (and most Democrats) proposed immediate withdrawal.

In 2006, Hanabusa and Schatz were running against each other for Congress (in a race won by now-Senator Mazie Hirono), and naturally were asked which Iraq plan they supported.

Hanabusa supported the Bush-Casey plan! Schatz, who was endorsed by Maui Peace Action and other peace supporters, unequivocally backed the Murtha plan.

This candidate questionnaire has the proof.

Of course, the Murtha-Schatz plan for immediate withdrawal, which was opposed by Hanabusa, didn’t get enacted. Bush ultimately sent even more troops to Iraq. As a result, the Iraq War became even more costly and tragic. The effects of this mistake are still playing out. And Hanabusa is asking for credit now?