Posted on: Friday, June 18, 2004

No one's innocent in Dobelle brouhaha

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	Thoughts? Join our discussion

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

In this corner, the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents with their unanimous vote for unnamed reasons.

In the other corner, Evan Dobelle, Manoa's Mr. Rourke in white pants, silk shirt and kukui nut lei, promising fantasies fulfilled.

But this isn't Big Time Wrestling, where it's easy to tell which side to cheer for because the good guy is so clean and the bad guy has fangs and is swinging chairs.

Nobody's terribly clean in this bout.

Dobelle isn't exactly the beloved, charismatic, unassailable Dudley Do-Right. When he first got on the scene, his big talk was exciting. Remember when Hawai'i Tourism Authority board members waxed poetic about how great it would be if the HTA could find a Dobelle-like leader? He was their role model. But in the past year, his larger-than-life-ishness seemed to scrape against the sides of this little pond.

There are serious questions regarding the actions and motivations of Board of Regents as well. Four of Gov. Linda Lingle's six appointees to the board have direct ties to her campaign. More than ties, they have thick mooring lines. Who's the fight promoter here? Lingle says she didn't even know this was going down. Nope. Not even her close friend and former campaign chairwoman, Regent Kitty Lagareta, whispered a word.

And though the phrase "for cause" was emphasized in the press conference announcing the Regents' decision, the public still hasn't been told what that cause is.

It's not pro wrestling, but it's not a civilized match like fencing or judo, either. Form and protocol were thrown out the window. This was a brawl, a smack-down, and Dobelle got whupped.

Who would imagine there would be a big schoolyard beef on a college campus?

And now, instead of getting to the heart of the matter, they're going back and forth about who started fighting dirty:

We believe the public has the right to know immediately.

They held a press conference before they told me.

Well, we tried to call him.

They left voice mail at the hotel but I got it too late.

We talked to the wife.

They called Kit at midnight while I was on the road to Michigan.

Well, he could have been here for the meeting.

Well, they rescheduled the meeting for themselves, but they wouldn't reschedule around me.

He told me "Wot?"

Well, they told me "Wot?" so I told them "Wot?"

Bottom line is that the public has the right to know what went down behind closed doors at a state institution. Yes, fighting is to be expected when power, politics and money are involved. But the fighting should be on the public's behalf, and it should be a clean fight.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.