Ask any five Hawaii Democrats to describe Neil Abercrombie’s politics and I am willing to bet all five will say "Neil is a liberal."
Then ask any five Hawaii Republicans to describe "a liberal" and three will say "Liberals want to pass more laws."
On the mainland, probably more Republicans would go with the mantra of "job-killing, initiative-stifling, overly burdensome new laws," but Hawaii’s Republicans are a particularly quarrelsome bunch, rarely agreeing on anything.
The lone Senate Republican, Hawaii Kai’s Sam Slom, campaigns on a promise to "cut taxes, enhance incentives both fiscal and non- fiscal for job creators, reduce burdensome employer mandates and celebrate rather than tax and punish local success."
The Hawaii GOP platform broadly announces, "Government, at any level, should not perform functions which are better and less expensively performed by individuals or private organizations."
When serving in Congress, Abercrombie was rated by the National Journal as voting 90 percent liberal on social issues. The Americans for Democratic Action scored him as voting correct 85 percent of the time.
So who would have guessed that the one to lead Hawaii out of the swamp of needless regulation and bureaucratic bullying would be Abercrombie?
In just eight months, Abercrombie has discovered the magic words to get out of any troublesome bind.
Is the state procurement code troubling your project? Is it just too burdensome to have to follow the laws designed for historic preservation, water, conservation, wildlife or even environmental impact statements?
Just declare an emergency.
Last week Abercrombie was raising eyebrows by secretly exempting his administration from following the rules when the federal government removes left-over World War II munitions.
It turns out that declaring an emergency is just the way he rolls.
Other emergencies you probably didn’t notice included the Sept. 2 emergency on Kauai where Kuhio Highway running past Princeville is crumbling.
Of course the state Transportation Department has been monitoring the road since the late 1990s, but Abercrombie decided that to start repairs immediately, it must be an emergency —and an emergency it became.
According to state law, only the governor can declare an emergency, and according to Hawaii Revised Statute 128-7: "The governor shall be the sole judge of the existence of the danger, threat, state of affairs or circumstances" triggering the emergency.
The benefit of declaring an emergency is that the governor can then "suspend any law which impedes or tends to impede or be detrimental to the expeditious and efficient execution of … emergency functions."
If not a complete alarmist, Abercrombie, at least, sees our world as a perilous place. Last week I had thought Abercrombie declared only one emergency; turns out we have lived through three state emergencies in the last eight months.
So far Abercrombie has found that old hand grenades, removing nene geese from the Kauai airport’s runways and fixing a Kauai two-lane blacktop are all imminent dangers and therefore emergencies.
This is precisely what Slom and the GOP have been arguing for years: Hawaii can’t get anything done because we have too many restrictive laws.
We are in a recession, people are in bankruptcy, our unemployment rate is climbing, tax collections are getting dodgy — if this isn’t an emergency, then what is?
Who knew it would be Neil Abercrombie, a 1960s liberal, to rescue Hawaii’s business?
Remember, standing in line, filling out a form and paying your taxes are all emergencies to someone.
Business must remind Abercrombie: "It is not if, it is when."
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
