David Shapiro: Hawaii’s self-important senators need a dose of humility

You knew state Senate confirmation for Gov. Josh Green’s Cabinet nominees would be nasty from the unusually hostile reception they got at their first budget hearings before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

They were shown little of the courtesy or basic manners extended nominees of previous governors, getting berated, badgered and bruised from the start by Chair Donovan Dela Cruz and members such as Michelle Kidani, Donna Mercado Kim and Glenn Wakai, who lorded with imperious self-regard.

Facing the unexpected hostility, and the fact they were addressing budgets prepared mostly by the outgoing Ige administration on which they hadn’t put their own imprint, things went poorly for most nominees.

These encounters have been repeatedly cited by senators in their unprecedented rejection of three of Green’s Cabinet appointments so far, with more blood likely.

Ikaika Anderson, who was rejected as Hawaiian Homes chairman, was a politician who had made political enemies, and it wasn’t a great surprise it cost him.

Chris Sadayasu, turned down as director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, had the misfortune of being nominated for a job Wakai wanted and didn’t get; it was predictable whoever Green put forward for the post would be roughed up. Wakai wiped his fingerprints by ducking the 15-8 vote.

It was in the sudden and messy rejection of Scott Glenn to head the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development that the sordidness and naked political aggression of the Dela Cruz group became clear.

Glenn was initially uncontroversial, clearing Sen. Lorraine Inouye’s Water and Land Committee 4-1. But immediately there were reports of Dela Cruz and Kidani attempting to “bully” senators into switching, and Sens. Stanley Chang and Angus McKelvey, who voted for Glenn in committee, did shortly after switch their votes to “no.”

Glenn was ultimately rejected on a 12-12 tie, with Sen. Joy San Buenaventura absent and refusing to explain why, or how she would have voted.

Speculation on reasons for the sudden shift against Glenn abounded.

Some suggested Dela Cruz, Kidani and Wakai kneecapped Glenn for not backing the stalled Hu Honua wood-to-energy plant on the Big Island, which they had legislatively boosted, to be rewarded by developers with a lavish political fundraiser.

Glenn was suddenly blamed, somewhat unfairly, for the Ige administration’s decision to close a coal plant before comparably priced clean energy was available.

Most “no” voters hung their hats on convenient last- minute complaints of disgruntled employees in the planning office who didn’t like Glenn’s style. (There are always disgruntled employees when a new administration comes in.)

We don’t know who these people were, what their beef was or whether they even existed, but 12 senators gave the invisible critics more weight than Glenn’s many transparent supporters who provided clear reasons and put their names behind them.

In the end a good nominee was trashed as what many called “collateral damage.”

To which Green correctly responded, “The people don’t want political collateral damage. They want results.”

Now the governor must stand his ground against the bullying and continue calling out the power-tripping ethical wasteland that is our Senate.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.