There’s obviously a lot of interest in yesterday’s hearing before the Senate’s Committee on Water and Land.
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The SA has 58 comments as of 1130am….but they are behind a paywall.
Anybody notice the not so subtle message of the Governor and his hulking Chief of Staff sitting with crossed arms directly in front of the Senators ?
Reminded me of the guilty crooks in the courtroom staring down the witness. Good for the Senators for standing up to these cheap intimidation tactics.
His weak grasp of fundamental Hawaii environmental law concepts was startling, especially after spending so much time on the developer end of the spectrum and presumably anticipating the nature of the interrogation he would surely face.
His professed ignorance of positions taken by LURF while he was on its board of directors was not convincing or demonstrative of leadership abilities, and that’s being very polite.
His retreat to the “I’m a local boy so stop beating up on me because I’ll somehow do what’s right” posture was kind of sad.
The hardest questioning he faced was actually quite merciful.
The Governor’s forceful interjection of himself into the proceedings to cut off a line of questioning as his nominee floundered was certainly revealing, and perhaps unprecedented.
One senator’s announcement that he would vote one way in committee and another way on the floor was laughable.
In the end, the nomination will be confirmed after some ugliness. But the Governor will have lost quite a bit in the process.
His retreat to the “I’m a local boy so stop beating up on me because I’ll somehow do what’s right” posture was kind of sad.
https://screen.yahoo.com/phil-hartman-snl-skits/unfrozen-cave-man-lawyer-2-223434949.html
Ige is turning out to be downright Mufiesque .
Reality check…the histrionics are obscuring the facts and the history.
If Bill Aila, former Harbor Master in Waianae, had suffered a similar grilling I would suspect he would have looked even less competent to serve. Bill is a nice man but he had ZERO senior management experience prior to being gifted the Chair. This inquisition reminded me of Clayton Hees cruel conducting of confirmation hearings during the Lingle administration.
Bottom line, Ige is Gov, who he appoints is on him, and none of you have a clue how Ching would/will actually perform. You’re relying on speculation and as I read it much of the opposition is fear based rather than rational.
Forget this “Save the Aina” (non) issue for a moment. That’s not DLNR’s sole mission. They are also expected to MANAGE the lands, to IMPLEMENT policy, to SERVE the public.
The esteem-able Chair Thielen had her shot at management and wasn’t able to reform the beauracracy she should allow this nominee his chance.
Keep in mind it’s a tough position to fill…Ching could just as easily be the next Bill Paty (very competent Chair with a lessor/landowner/developer backgrond) as he could be the next Laura Thielen ( much less competent as Chair) with a strong environmentalist background or even less credibly, the next Peter Young (uhh…an appraiser !)
Ones background does not define ones ceiling. Give the man a chance.