Eric: What are your thoughts on how the governor is handling the dispute with labor to close the budget gap? How would you have handled it or what would you have done in this case?

Congressman Neil Abercrombie: The economic difficulties are real and the Legislature and the relevant unions and the workers and the governor trying to come to a conclusion about it is something that has to be accomplished.

The best answer I can give that doesn't interfere with the ongoing discussions — perhaps I can draw a bit of an analogy or an example — if the house is already burned down, it doesn't do very much good to come in and say "what would you have done to put out the fire?" The whole idea would be how do you keep the house from burning in the first place.

If you foresee that you are heading into rocky waters financially, what you need to do is sit down and talk early on. The essence of leadership, I think, is knowing where you have to be before you have to be there.

That's one of the reasons that I am running for governor. Is that there has been unfortunately a history...of a clash and conflict, confrontation between the Legislature and the governor, which I think has been very unfortunate politically but it's even more unfortunate for the state because of the adverse economic circumstances we're in.

So I go back to what I call the Dickie Wong rules back when I was a state senator and Dickie Wong was the state Senate president. He had two rules that he operated by in order to come to a conclusion in tough situations. He got everybody in the room and said here's the two rules: Nobody leaves. If you leave then you don't have anything to say. You can't come back and complain. You must stay, nobody leaves and nobody punches anybody else. What he means is no cheap shots. No negotiating outside the room. Don't throw verbal blows or ideological blows at one another. Let's stick with what we need to get done here and see what we come out with — and it worked. And I think that's how I would have handled things.

Wanda: I keep reading about the massive health care bill. Can you tell us today whether you have actually read the entire bill and what specifically you like or dislike about the current version?

Abercrombie: Well there is no 'bill' to read. Yes, I've read the bills. There are five committees working on it right now so there's actually five bills operating out there.

Now they're complementary; the health care bill is really the health insurance reform bill — that's what it is, it's all about insurance.

You got the financial part: Ways and Means. You got the policy part: Energy and Commerce. You got the actual implementation for workers and people who have to pay the premium: that's Education and Labor. Then in the Senate you have the Finance Committee and the equivalent of Energy and Commerce in the Senate. So five different committees working on it.

In the House we managed to come out with three packages right now; we are trying to synthesize the bills.

As each package comes out we have caucuses. When the latest one came out from Energy and Commerce, which was the last one, we had a six -hour caucus in which the entire Democratic Party majority came to the caucus and each section of the bill was read and summarized to the membership and questions and commentary went back and forth for six hours.

So the answer to Wanda is yes, this is the most thoroughly examined bill maybe in the history of the United States Congress, as much or more than Social Security or the original Medicare bill. Rest assured when we finally synthesize the bills and put something out, it will have had more examination more closely with as many or more perspectives coming out of it to be shared with the community as any bill in the history of the United States.

We are determined to not just reform but transform health care and health insurance.

Nanakuli Bill: Army commanders say our soldiers need Makua Military Reservation for training; Hawai'i's VFW concurs; Sen. Inouye said let them train, and the cost to make Makua safe for civilians is prohibitive. You disagree, why?

Abercrombie: It's not a matter of disagreement, it's a matter of Makua and the 21st century Army.

And my only point there is of course they can train. The point is, is that going to be the best place, and for the 21st century? That's evolving right now. I think in my discussions with the Army chief of staff, with the Army and what they project for the future in terms of training, that the issue of Makua will resolve itself in the near future. I think what everybody needs to do is to step back from the accusations and the finger pointing and so on and let the situation evolve a little longer. What we need is a little more patience and I think the Makua situation will be resolved.

James: Have you been following the new education reforms in Washington? How does Hawai'i figure into these changes?

Abercrombie: We've had people in a position to deal with that and to come to grips with that from Patsy Mink on. Mazie has taken Patsy's seat on the Education and Labor committee.

Dealing with the question of the recovery bill that I just mentioned, (there are) $5 billion in competitive grants out there. We are in an ideal position to do something in that regard. We've got ethnic circumstances that provide good control groups for experimentation for demonstration projects; we have English as a Second Language (issues) because of the multiplicity of languages, particularly because of the immigrants coming into Hawai'i — per capita one of the highest in the country.

The answer is we have an opportunity to do a lot of things in education connected to federal funding that I think could be utilized a lot better.

808poet: Many organizations have endorsed both you and Mayor Hannemann in the past, and many of those same organizations may be torn this 2010 election season with both of you vying for the same seat. Can you tell me what your top three priorities will be as governor?

Also, for those of us fearing that the rail transit project might end up in the wrong hands, due to this election season's political "hot potato," can you offer any words of assurance?

Abercrombie: Energy independence, educational excellence, environmental sustainability, and that manifests itself in investment in the university.

Where transit is concerned, (I hope) that we don't let ourselves in for the kind of difficulties that got associated with Makua, with the Stryker Brigade, with the Superferry, and I'm very, very concerned about that and I think continuity of leadership is very, very important.

The top priority for me will be to assure the people of the state that if given the opportunity to be governor I am going to stay as governor and focus on that entirely.

Whether it's housing, whether it's energy independence, whether it's educational reform and excellence, sustainability — they can be assured that is where my concentration and every bit of my effort and will will be.