Everybody is wondering about Tulsi Gabbard.

Hawaii politicians sitting in little offices surrounded by the plaques and paper certificates of low-level awards dream of catapulting their way to Congress to take Gabbard’s place. They watch her so carefully to see if there is any sign that she’s moving on.

Ever since Gabbard was summoned to Trump’s throne for an early tete-a-tete as he was assembling his Cabinet, the pack here at home has been waiting to see whether Gabbard sufficiently hit it off with the mercurial new president to be called up to join his team. Waiting and hoping. And planning, just in case.

Then came this Syria business — a rare misstep for a savvy politician who is usually so good at managing her image. If Tulsi Gabbard’s name is trending on Google, it’s probably because so many at the state Capitol are following her every move.

Gabbard is a major influence in Hawaii’s legislative session even though she’s nowhere near the Capitol and is more focused on the Middle East than on Middle Street. The more you see a politician on TV, the more likely they’re preening for a shot at Gabbard’s seat.

Unstated in public but undeniably palpable is the resentment Gabbard’s onetime colleagues here at home feel for her stunningly fast rise from Honolulu City Council obscurity to national media darling. Gabbard parlayed one term in the Legislature and half a term on the City Council into a seat in Congress. She cut short her apprenticeship by grabbing the gold ring early in her career while people like the late Mark Takai and Colleen Hanabusa had to put in time at hundreds of union picnics, cafeteria dedications and dreary public meetings.

There’s no denying her star power. Not since Dan Inouye flexed at the Watergate hearings in the 1970s has any other Hawaii politician been on TV as much as Gabbard has. She’s good on camera in a way that no Hawaii politician has ever been — which can’t be discounted now that a reality TV star is president.

But the thing is, it all accrues to Tulsi Gabbard. It doesn’t accrue to Hawaii. While she’s critiquing foreign policy on Fox news, her Hawaii colleagues in D.C. are trying to get the federal government to cough up enough money to keep the rail going and to keep jobs at Pearl Harbor. When Ed Case served in that same congressional seat, he held something like 172 “talk story” meetings with constituents all across Hawaii, which got a fraction of the attention Tulsi Gabbard got for one meeting with a Syrian war criminal said to be responsible for 500,000 deaths.

Maybe Gabbard’s ambition will soon be rewarded and she will move to even bigger and more glamorous things. Then perhaps Hawaii can have a representative who will use that office to advance Hawaii, though judging by the level of immodest ambition radiating from all the Tulsi wannabes, there’s not much “service over self” out there.