Capitol Notebook » Breaking the 11th

Breaking the 11th

March 29th, 2008 by Derrick DePledge

A band of conservative provacateurs unhappy with the Hawai’i GOP’s direction under Gov. Linda Lingle has found some new ammunition.

Eric Ryan, Garry Smith and a few of their allies have been toying with state GOP chairman Willes Lee over his refusal last weekend to remove a member of the party’s platform committee for donating money to local Democrats.

Smith was on it with a letter Monday in Hawaii Reporter, the conservative-to-libertarian Web site. Ryan, who is handy with a parody, sent out cartoons via e-mail that also appeared on the bombastic Zeroshibai.com.

By late Friday, conservative diva Michelle Malkin had jumped in on her blog, as did former state House staffer Doug White over at www.poinography.com.

So what went down?

Ryan, a member of the platform committee, wanted the party to dump H.K. Bruss Keppeler from the platform committee and the party because Keppeler donated to U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka’s re-election campaign in 2006 against state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, R-50th (Kailua, Käneçohe Bay).

The party’s rules state that a member could be removed for actively campaigning for a candidate from another party. Lee said he consulted with the party’s rules official and determined that Keppeler’s donations to Akaka did not constitute actively campaigning for the senator.

Lee told us on Friday afternoon that a donation is not the same as, for example, a public endorsement or a campaign commercial or working on a campaign. He said his decision does not mean, as Ryan and Smith have claimed, that he is encouraging Republicans to give money to Democrats.

“I’m always hesitant to just say somebody is lying, but it is certainly shading the truth,” Lee said. “Nobody asked the question if it was alright to give money to Democrats.”

Lee said he wished Ryan would use his communications and computer skills to help the GOP fight majority Democrats instead of tearing down the party’s leadership.

“Certainly as talented as Ryan appears to be with these pieces he builds, it would be nice — especially with our need to have the public hear more of our views — that he would participate with us instead of him supporting Democrats by trying to knock down Republicans,” Lee said. “But I haven’t quite got him to do that yet.”

We did some checking around after we talked with Lee and — uh, oh — it turns out Keppeler did publicly endorse Akaka, although it was during the senator’s primary against former congressman Ed Case.

Keppeler, a real-estate lawyer active in the Hawaiian community, was quoted in a press release from the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce endorsing Akaka.

“The Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce board has worked closely with Senator Akaka for many years. We have the utmost confidence in his ability to support not only Native Hawaiian businesses but Hawaii businesses as well,” stated NHCC Governmental Affairs Chair, H.K. Bruss Keppeler. “In recognition of his significant contributions to Hawaii and Native Hawaiians, NHCC bestowed on Senator Akaka in 1991 our highest honor, the `O`o award,” he said.

Ryan believes Lee made the wrong call.

“He’s saying you might not be able to give time like stuffing envelopes or licking stamps for the opposition, but if you’re a Friend of Lingle and she likes your politics, you can keep giving thousands to Democrats and still help lead the GOP and even write its policies,” he said in an e-mail. “Pretzel logic, for sure. No wonder the party’s been in decline since Lingle became governess.”

White, at poinography.com, notes that the Democratic Party of Hawai’i also has a rule against actively supporting another party or another party’s candidates.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, the state’s top Democrat, has famously broken that rule through his longtime friendship and support for U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Tags: Eric Ryan, Garry Smith, Willes Lee

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12 Responses to “Breaking the 11th”

Doug:
March 29th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Is Garry Smith the Zero Shibai blogger? ZS is pretty coy about authorship.

If Smith indeed wrote the Keppeler parody cartoons, then that would be my hunch. They certainly seem to be from the same mind as the rest of the ZA parody cartoons, including the (in)famous Cow Inoa strips.
Keppeler, time to re-think your affiliation:
March 29th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Trouble with parties is they can be too partisan. Our GOP sure is, at least.

We have to keep the open-armed structure for which we’re so famous.

We don’t care about substantive issues; just pass the loot and put in our loyal into public office.

Who cares if they’re incompetent? What’s that gotta do with it – government was messed up before we “fixed” it and it’ll be so long after folks wise up to us?

We can spin it in the media and confuse most of the innocent… while we just take the money to the bank!
Eric Ryan:
March 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am
If Lee really wants to “have the public hear more of our views”, where was the party’s advertising during the last campaign? Where is the party’s advertising during the current Legislative session? Is the public supposed to be psychic? Are voters expected by Lee to overthrow the Democrats without being encouraged to do so and without being told WHY they should do so? Are we keeping our powder dry until the Fall campaign when people are too busy to listen? Spare me the “If only Eric Ryan would help” excuses. If you were leading a political revolution in Hawaii like the Democrats did in 1954, it would be plain for everyone to see and the buzz would be everywhere by now. A cardboard cutout of a party chairman would be more of a threat to Hawaii Democrats.
Cardboard, the Ideal GOP Chair:
March 29th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Cardboard:

It’s corrugated, recyclable and more durable than mere paper.
It is considered harmless by Hawaii Democratic folks.

When you have a party that is elitist and considers itself better than the public it supposedly serves,
Well, then you’d have a gop of a party.

The Hawaii GOP is a like a bad joke; it mirrors it’s absentee parents in the mainland.
And our governor claimed to have influence with bush et al- sure has n’t paid off for Hawaii.
Webloggin - Blog Archive » Throw the Bums Out of the Republican Party:
March 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
[…] long after making such a profoundly dense defense Dereck DePledge, a reporter and blogger in Hawaii, dug up a Keppler endorsement of Akaka. “We have the utmost […]
Eric J. Seabury:
March 29th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Cardboard claimed: “When you have a party that is elitist and considers itself better than the public it supposedly serves, Well, then you’d have a gop of a party.”

That pretty much sums up the attitude and style of the Democratic Party of Hawai’i, I don’t know where you’ve been since 1954. I will agree with you on one point, though. The Hawai’i GOP has become a joke, You have RINO’s masquerading as Republicans and voting (And apparently now donating) like Democrats. I think it’s laughable that many of our Republican brothers and sisters serving in government think that you have to act like a liberal in order to gain favor with the public.

Instead we should be Honoring our Republican tradition by remaining “steadfast” in reducing government, reducing taxes and “choke-hold” regulations against our private lives and businesses, we need to increase our personal Liberties, defend the life of the unborn, keep our Armed Forces strong, and throw the Akaka Bill to the wayside where it deserves to be. It’s time to show our Pride and our Patriotism and show, by example, what it truly means to be a Republican!

The Democrats have shown the people of Hawai’i, for more than 50 years now, how they “rule” a population while in “cahoots” with the unions and special interests. It’s time we show the people of Hawai’i how government is supposed to “serve” a population while preserving our American ideals and traditions.

Granted, we still have exceptional Patriots such as Eric Ryan, Malia Zimmermann, Garry Smith, Charles Djou (Who should run for Honolulu Mayor) and Senator Sam Slom (Who should run for Governor in 2010), Sons and Daughters of Hawai’i, who haven’t given up on the Conservative way of life.

We are STILL the party of Ronald W. Reagan and Barry M. Goldwater, who had held a deep, cherished love and belief for the wisdon of the Founding Fathers. While the RINO’s and the neo-cons have hijacked our party and have made a mockery of it for their own selfish purposes, there are still many of us, in Hawai’i and on the mainland, who want to restore our Republican traditions and restore our great Republic. Change is on the horizon and it will begin at the grassroots level. The likes of Willes Lee and other status quo bureaucrats who have the audacity to call themselves “Republicans” are free to join us, if not, then they can step aside and let us organize and run things from now on. Then people like H.K. Bruss Keppeler can keep supporting Democrats to his heart’s content. We’re better off not having these Benedict Arnolds in our midst.
Local Solutions:
March 31st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Party decisions like this destroy confidence in the local party from honest and decent Hawaii citizens who have the traditionally Republican values of personal liberty and self reliance.
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