If you haven't guessed already, the rabble-rousing quotes all came not from the liberal firebrand Abercrombie, but from Case, the self-styled political moderate.

It's interesting because Case has made his supposed centrist views and bipartisan outlook a pivotal issue in his campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, a fellow Democrat and acknowledged liberal.

In a recent news release in which he rather presumptuously advised voters on qualities they should seek in a successor for his House seat, Case offered this definition of a moderate philosophy:

"(The) mainstream — where most of us are — is not at the edges, but in the middle ground. That mainstream also does not view or evaluate issues through an overly partisan lens."

It's difficult to see these qualities in some of the rhetorical grenades Case has lobbed at Bush and the Republicans — or a compelling argument that he's any more able to work with the GOP majority than others in the Hawai'i delegation.

Case has split with Hawai'i colleagues on issues such as renewal of the Patriot Act and specifics of troop withdrawals from Iraq, but their records and rhetoric have been more alike than not.

If anything, Sens. Akaka and Daniel K. Inouye have been less inflammatory than Case and Abercrombie in partisan attacks on the Republicans.

This is not to criticize the substance of Case's views; from his runaway victories in both of his U.S. House elections, he's clearly well within the mainstream of Hawai'i political thinking.

It's just to make the point that Akaka and the others also appear to be within the mainstream that Case has defined by word and example.

As the campaign develops, Case must move away from generalities and sharpen his arguments about moderate leadership with convincing specifics.

If he can't make the moderation issue stick, all he'll have left is the difference in ages — Case is 53 and Akaka is 81 — as rationale for challenging a well-regarded incumbent in his own party.

The age issue alone won't likely win this election for Case in a culture in which we revere our elders and frown upon age discrimination.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.