When Linda Lingle ran for governor in 2002, she promised a new beginning for Hawai'i in which she would deliver "a government that the public can trust and respect."

"The lack of integrity in government has resulted in a system where no one is accountable to anyone for anything," she said.

She promised to "hold myself and those who serve in government accountable to the people of Hawai'i for our official actions, our personal behavior, our campaign promises and for achieving measurable results."

"Restoring integrity to government requires us to share information openly with the public so the people of Hawai'i will know the true condition of state government, the programs it operates and the results of its efforts," Lingle said.

It's difficult to square those promises with the governor's dodges over disclosing her decision-making in the Hawaii Superferry debacle, in which the Supreme Court shut down the $300 million enterprise because the Lingle administration failed to require an environmental assessment.

Especially troubling is the administration's invocation of attorney-client privilege in concealing advice given the Department of Transportation by the attorney general leading up to the decision that no environmental review was needed.

There's concern that Lingle will continue to take cover behind the privilege as the state auditor investigates the Superferry approval process as part of the recent bill passed by the Legislature to allow the Superferry to sail while an environmental impact statement is written.

The attorney general holds a special position as the lawyer for Hawai'i's people, not just the private counsel of the governor and her department heads.

Any attempt to hide from reasonable examination of her actions behind the technicalities of attorney-client privilege would blatantly violate Lingle's campaign promises of openness and accountability.

If her administration did nothing wrong on the Superferry, as Lingle insists, then she has nothing to fear from fully disclosing what she did and why and letting the chips of accountability fall where they may.

It should be said that if Lingle's evasiveness isn't defensible, neither is the partisan hectoring on the Superferry by Democrats such as Rep. Marcus Oshiro.

If legislators wanted to know what the attorney general's advice was, they could have asked when they rushed through $40 million in harbor improvements for the Superferry while Oshiro was House majority leader. Where was he with his questions then?

House Democrats could have dug for the attorney general's views when their leadership refused this year to hear a compromise Senate bill to require an environmental review.

Lawmakers could have asked probing questions instead of taking their "facts" from Superferry press releases when they unanimously passed a resolution in 2004 declaring the Superferry to be "environmentally friendly" and urging its swift regulatory approval.

Lingle owes it to legislative investigators and her constituents to be totally forthcoming, but the Democrats owe Lingle and the same constituents a fair investigation.

State Auditor Marion Higa, who was appointed by the Democrats, has shown herself to be a bit of an empire-builder who knows where her bread is buttered. Any investigation that puts Lingle under a microscope but fails to also examine the Legislature's woeful lack of due diligence in helping the governor speed the Superferry to approval will lack credibility.

It's disingenuous for legislators to posture now as though they're cleaning up the administration's mess.

They made the mess together, they fashioned a remedy together in the recent special session and now they have to share accountability.

The defensiveness and partisan finger-pointing we've seen so far suggest that nobody has learned anything from this fiasco, which would be the biggest tragedy of all.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.