State Sen. Sam Slom has been called the loneliest man in American politics as the only Republican surrounded by 24 Democrats in the Hawaii Senate.
Apparently, some guys can’t be lonely enough; beyond battling Democrats, Slom has been aggressively picking fights with real and imagined adversaries across the spectrum of his own GOP.
Slom, Hawaii’s highest-ranking elected Republican, snubbed former Gov. Linda Lingle and the party leadership in last year’s U.S. Senate race by backing fringe candidate John Carroll over Lingle in the GOP primary.
Carroll, who got little traction as a conservative alternative to Lingle, showed his conservative mettle by throwing his general election support to liberal Democrat Mazie Hirono, leaving Slom with egg all over his face.
When Democratic state Senate President Donna Mercado Kim was criticized for meddling in her son’s application to the University of Hawaii law school, GOP state Chairman David Chang called for an ethics investigation.
It was a pretty standard call to accountability by an opposition party, but Slom backed Kim and huffily scolded Chang for not deferring to him.
He again poked GOP leadership with a keynote speech to the Hawaii Republican Assembly, a conservative offshoot group that’s been sniping at party leaders.
Slom last week raged at his party’s right, ranting against the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii for inviting Democratic consultant Joe Trippi to speak at its annual dinner next month honoring the late conservative icon Milton Friedman.
Trippi agrees with Friedman’s views on school choice, and his speech is titled "Better Schools Aren’t a Partisan Issue."
Trippi was recommended to the Grassroot Institute by the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation, which has sponsored him around the country.
But never mind what Friedman’s foundation thinks, Slom knows his wishes better.
"Milton Friedman is already rolling in his grave," he declared, railing that Trippi is "a well-known socialist, left Democrat, partisan, anti-tea party hatchet man for every recent leftist Democrat in the U.S., Greece, Nigeria and points red."
Slom didn’t buy the view of Grassroot Institute founder Richard Rowland, once his ally, that conservatives must work with Democrats when they agree, as Slom himself worked with former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano against Oahu rail.
The Grassroot Institute is about as far right as politics gets in Hawaii, and if it’s not far enough right for Slom, you have to wonder whether Senator Sam has gone around the bend.
Republicans are struggling desperately for credibility as a political voice in Hawaii, unable to find a message their own dwindling membership can agree on, much less the electorate at large.
That won’t change as long as their leading voice in the media by virtue of his office is an antagonistic figure who is increasingly isolated and bombastic.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
