As Democrats cast about for a viable candidate to run against her next year, Gov. Linda Lingle is in surprising trouble with many fellow Republicans, who are furious about her support for a transit tax on O'ahu and the Akaka bill.

After Lingle backed down from a threat to veto a county excise tax for rail transit, which was strongly opposed by GOP legislators, former supporters who never expected a tax increase from this governor denounced her on talk radio with words like "traitor," "fraud" and "lying politician."

Conservative opponents of the Akaka bill, which would recognize the indigenous rights of Native Hawaiians, accused Lingle of a "slimy" maneuver to position herself to run for the U.S. Senate.

"Many Republicans who already are suspicious of Lingle are seeking a gubernatorial candidate to represent them in 2006," said the Hawaii Reporter, a Republican-oriented Web site with close ties to party conservatives.

It's unlikely that such a candidate could seriously challenge Lingle for the Republican nomination.

But GOP discord could energize the Democratic campaign and leave the governor at risk that unhappy Republicans will stay home in the general election, as disaffected Democrats did to Mazie Hirono in her 2002 loss to Lingle.

Lingle seems stunned by the sudden virulence of the criticism, as her support for O'ahu rail transit and the Akaka bill has been well-known since she took office.

There's a fair amount of hypocrisy among her Akaka bill critics, who claim the measure is unpopular among two-thirds of Hawai'i voters — and then accuse Lingle of backing it to grow her political popularity. They can't have it both ways.

But on the transit tax, the governor's waffling is as much the source of her trouble as the substance of her views.

Instead of being a leader in debating the central issue — whether congested O'ahu needs and can afford a rail system — she's hidden behind the esoteric side issue of home rule.

First she said she would veto the 12.5 percent excise tax increase unless the Democratic majority in the Legislature changed the bill to make counties rather than the state responsible for collecting the tax.

Then she changed her mind and let the bill become law without her signature based on a nonbinding pledge of Democratic leaders to merely recommend her changes next year.

Her love-in with Democratic leaders in the Capitol courtyard to seal the deal enraged GOP critics — especially after the spirit of bipartisan cooperation she touted died the next day when Democratic lawmakers called a special session to override a record 12 of her vetoes.

Many Republicans are increasingly frustrated that Lingle's promise of "a new beginning" for Hawai'i remains mostly unfulfilled 2 1/2 years into her term as Hawai'i's first GOP governor in 40 years.

They complain that Lingle has failed to take the fight to the Democrats to advance the party's agenda, that she has meekly let anonymous committees and faceless aides do her talking as Democratic lawmakers ignore her initiatives and pass bill after bill diminishing the administrative powers of her office.

While her agenda has crumbled, she's been most visible presiding over ceremonial events, flirting with national politics and making promotional trips abroad, detractors say.

They blame Lingle's preoccupation with the Bush presidential campaign for the devastating loss of five local Republican House seats last year when the GOP was expected to make gains.

If Lingle and her party can't pull it back together for next year's election, her administration will be remembered as a historical blip that only proved again that the greatest talent of Hawai'i Republicans is self-destruction.