The credit for getting Senator Dan Inouye on the record criticizing the recent Hannemann campaign mailer goes to KITV’s Denby Fawcett. In a story broadcast on Friday, she put the issue to the Senator.

Inouye said, “Sure you can be proud of your spouses but to say my wife is Japanese and yours is something else, that is not nice.”

Inouye said he has always tried to keep his own campaigns positive.

He said making haole (caucasian) and non-haole comparisons ,and contrasting yourself as Hawaii-born versus being from the mainland can be a dangerous way to go in a political campaign.

“If you do that, you will have to keep in mind that some people might resent that,” said Inouye.

Interestingly, Fawcett reports the Hannemann campaign declined to comment on the story. During last night’s debate, Hannemann offered a contorted pseudo-apology that didn’t actually apologize.

According to KITV’s Keoki Kerr:

In the hour-long debate on KHON-2 Friday night, Hannemann acknowledged some people feel the brochure was “not a good way or a positive way” to point out the differences between himself and Abercrombie.

“If we caused that kind of uneasiness and suffering from some people who saw it that way, certainly, it’s regrettable, and I’m sorry if it caused you that kind of feeling,” Hannemann said. “On the other hand, there were people who were saying that’s exactly what we need to see more of. We need to see the differences between the two of you.”

I’m beginning to agree with Abercrombie that Hannemann has a way of blaming everyone else when things don’t go right. In this case, it wasn’t that the campaign flyer was offensive. It was the fault of those overly sensitive readers who had “that kind of feeling.”

Given some of what’s being said on the campaign trail, perhaps Mufi should have a chance to debate Kirk Caldwell over whether the mayor or managing director should have bragging rights for “management experience”. The charter does provide for the managing director and a deputy managing director to handle the day-to-day management functions of the city while the mayor functions as the policy-driving CEO.

If you’re interested, here’s what the City Charter has to say about the different powers and duties of the mayor, and those of the managing director.

So on paper at least, both appear to rightly claim to have exercised management authority while at the city.

I also have to comment on Peter Carlisle’s attempt to spin all those other city issues from his prosecutor’s perspective. He demonstrated the limits to that perspective in addressing a question about homelessness during KHON’s earlier mayoral debate. Carlisle’s answer, which suggested better use of criminal and civil laws to herd the homeless out of our way, seemed devoid of any appreciation for homelessness as a social issue and not simply a legal one. We obviously haven’t figured out the answer to homelessness, but that was one answer I found very troubling.