Memminger's Hawaii
Price of Paradise · Hawaii Public Radio · aired 1996-05-12
Guests: Charlie Memminger (columnist and author); John Waihee (former Governor of Hawaii)
Duration: 1:04:34

[00:00:00] Randall Roth: Aloha! This is Randy Roth, host of the Price of Paradise Radio Show. We're live each Sunday morning at 8:00 at KHPR 88.1 and KKUA 90.7, and then we're rebroadcast Sunday evenings at 8:00 on KIFO 1380 AM. Everyone who works on this show is a volunteer who believes in the importance of lively and informed dialogue. Our sponsor is the Hawaii Community Foundation, providing community leadership and the administration of charitable funds. Our topic today, at least in theory, is government's role in people's lives. I've got a couple interesting guests and I'm going to let this conversation go wherever they decide to take it. My guests are John Waihee and Charlie Memminger.
[00:00:43] Randall Roth: We'll start with Charlie. He is the author of Honolulu Lite: The Humor of Charles Memminger. He's the winner of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Humor Award in 1992 and recognized in both humor and general interest categories in 1994. He's been writing Honolulu Lite in the Star-Bulletin since 1991. Charlie's the son of an Air Force officer. He's traveled extensively, living in garden spots and I'll I'll spare you some of the garden spots, but he graduated from IEA High School where he specialized in surfing, losing his lunch money to common thugs and generally being a part of the academic downward bound movement.
[00:01:23] Randall Roth: One of the few graduates of Oregon State University not to specialize in animal husbandry, Memminger joined the Star-Bulletin in 1980 as a police reporter and worked his way up through the courts, special projects and investigative reporting before finally becoming a quote, investigative humorist, a position that entails digging up controversial stuff and then making fun of it. Charlie lives in Kaneohe with his wife and daughter and poi dog Boomer, all of whom have become somewhat reluctant recurring characters in his columns, not to mention his life in general. Charlie, good morning.
[00:01:57] Charlie Memminger: Good morning, Randy.
[00:01:58] Randall Roth: I should also mention that I've got in my hand right now a book called Honolulu Lite: The Humor of Charles Memminger, has a forward by Jim Neighbor and a lot of nifty artwork and political cartoons from Corky Trinidad, and on the cover it says, "Hey tourist, buy this book." I haven't looked at it yet, but I read your columns all the time and I'm very much looking forward to reading the book. Our other guest is John Waihee and John's resume is is very long, but I think everybody realizes that he's our most recent former governor. Good morning, John.
[00:02:34] John Waihee: Good morning.
[00:02:35] Randall Roth: I I suppose I should start by saying how does...
[00:02:37] John Waihee: No, no, no, first you should start by giving me the same plug you did with Charlie, you know, and all the writing a book. I have a law firm now. Yeah. Bernard and Lippert.
[00:02:46] Randall Roth: You know, at one time I was thinking this gathering this morning was a little bit of an odd couple, but you and Jerry Johnson, the head of the Republican Party, explain that.
[00:02:55] John Waihee: Well, well, it's he said and he said, you know, it's it's um, it's a left and a right getting together. Yeah. It's working really well. Yeah. It's working really well. He came in on on Friday and looked around and decided that he wanted to put up different pictures, insisted on Bush and Reagan. I drew the line at Nixon though.
[00:03:17] Randall Roth: Oh, I see. Okay. Keep it up. I I I don't know what kind of position this puts you in. Tell me how this makes you feel. I'm reading from...
[00:03:27] John Waihee: God, I love these things. Actually, he if any, wait, let me complete this. You go and sell Charlie's book if he's the lawyer, you know. If anyone needs somebody back in Washington. Okay. Um, in a column that Charlie wrote last week, he's describing this morning's show, he says, "This is going to be a route. Why would a heavy hitter like Waihee want to stomp a politically naive weenie like me in public? I don't know. If you enjoy carnage, tune in."
[00:03:58] Charlie Memminger: That's why I got my bulletproof vest on the governor. Go ahead.
[00:04:00] John Waihee: Yeah, that's right. I I tell you there's nothing, you know, the more things change, the more they remain the same. You know, all reporters, media types, they actually have that kind of paranoia. And it's we, us, on the other side that get cleaned and crucified. Right, I kept looking, by the way, the advertisers this morning usually carries uh articles about the show. Right. So, I I thought I'd open it up and see what we would be talking about this morning. Didn't see a single thing about my being on here, nothing. So, I guess, you know, sometimes they know the good old adage that if you don't have anything good to say about somebody...
[00:04:32] Charlie Memminger: I I think it had more to do with uh I don't think the advertiser wants to promote my book. Yeah. I thought it was me, my guy. I have a feeling Politicians get I have a feeling their editors said, you know, we're really not in the business of promoting our competition's columnist. So, uh I wouldn't take that one too personally. That was not you.
[00:04:53] Randall Roth: I'm I'm real curious. Charlie, um, you're a humorist, but you also, uh your your columns tend to make a a point, sometimes it has a a very sharp point, and uh I've accused you of being from Kansas. I think there's a little bit of a a libertarian bent in there. Um, on the scale of things, are you writing your column primarily to be funny, just to make people laugh or primarily to to really get an important issue and get people thinking about it?
[00:05:20] Charlie Memminger: Well, I try to have a point in every column, and the column isn't very long, so you have to make maybe one or two points. But everybody is so, you know, serious these days, that humor is uh humor is one way to make a point, to throw a little different twist on something, and then uh people will go, "Yeah, you know, I haven't thought of that."
[00:05:45] Randall Roth: Trying to disarm them?
[00:05:47] Charlie Memminger: Well, just uh you know, it's uh there's so many people who uh just accept things. Uh for instance, uh some of the issues that will probably be, you know, will probably come up. To me, they're just so outrageous. For instance, the idea that they wanted to ban spanking in the home. Now, uh I stood back and said, You're not you're not against that, are you?
[00:06:13] Charlie Memminger: Well, it depends on which member of the family. Okay, I mean, I don't want it to cut into my Friday nights, but uh but uh, you know, to me, and and the topic today is the government role in our lives and to me what happens in Hawaii a little too much is that they worry about small things like that and like I mentioned earlier to you, the the state fish, that kind of stuff. And then they take their eye off the ball on the big issues that I think everybody wants them to solve, you know, uh, workers comp, the economy, insurance, things like that.
[00:06:47] Charlie Memminger: And so they have a session like they just had in legislature and everybody complains that they didn't do anything. Which is what everybody wanted to happen anyway. I I said long ago we ought to pay them as long as they agreed not to meet because clearly every time they meet, they cost us money. So, uh, I told you about this Kansas thing. John, what do you think of what you're hearing? I think I think well, first of all, I thought his article on the uh Charlie's, I read Charlie's article on the spanking. Mhm. And I you know, that was one of his better articles. Really, some of the things, you know, when some of his his articles are are not in that category.
[00:07:24] John Waihee: That was definitely one of the high points. I, you know, there is a tendency for human beings to focus on things that are smaller than the big problems. I mean, the fish, that debate on I can still remember that. I mean, there were great sessions on what the state fish should be. And and it's harder to work on workers compensation. Well, to me to me, like for instance, the the state fish, the state fish is like a decal that you put on your car when your car is running well. It's like the final thing you do to sort of trick it out.
[00:08:00] John Waihee: You don't go putting $100,000 decals on chassis that are up on blocks. And uh, if they would concentrate on getting the engine going first and then the the state fish, then I think that is the way to go. I mean, on the other hand, would you rather be a Marlin or a Humuhumunukunukuapua? I mean, these are important issues.
[00:08:21] Charlie Memminger: It says a lot about us and our community. I mean, you know, you can't overdo that. John, Charlie raises the issue of this last legislature. Uh, feel like giving us a grade that uh Well, no, because I was out of town. So you know, I was out of town most of the time. No, the cop out. Yeah. No, yeah. No idea what was happening back there.
[00:08:39] Charlie Memminger: No, I I well, just vaguely. You did play golf with Clinton the other day, didn't you? I can't give you a grade in Congress. Oh, Congress. I mean, whatever you think is I mean, people have this tendency to talk about Hawaii uh being this and Hawaii being that. I mean, it's the same way in Congress. What did Congress do this year? In fact, I'll tell you what, I will give personally um since I can for it a little bit more now, you know, I will give like $50 to anybody who can call in and guess, well, the first person. First person, because I'm only going to do this once. But I you know, guess how many uh points of the Republican, what did they have, a contract with America actually passed and what they were, But they never said that it was going to pass. They said they were going to just bring them up bring them up to a vote. Oh, that's they said that afterwards. But it's all this great production. Well, what I'm trying to say is you want to talk about do-nothingness, the do-nothingness is a I know, but we expect Washington to do nothing. But Yeah, after eight years of myself, probably you're the you're the only one who lives there now. I know, I wouldn't I got to come over home and pay taxes.
[00:09:47] Randall Roth: Earlier this morning we were chatting and and you kiddingly called this your "coming out party". Uh, since uh since stepping down from from the governor's position, uh you've been fairly quiet, at least in public.
[00:09:59] John Waihee: This is the first. This is the first, and I only did it because of uh that you said you were going to we're going to have Charlie here this morning. Yeah, this guy, you know, my my son uh my son told me yesterday, he said, "God," he's so excited because he reads manager more than he should. And [unintelligible — audio glitch] then uh [unintelligible — audio glitch] his great line was when I was governing, he says, you can Charlie said, you know, you can always tell when Governor Waihee is in town because he takes your tea time.
[00:10:28] Randall Roth: Now, there is a real story behind that and I know you don't you don't have any memory of it, which is not that surprising. That happens when you get to Washington, all of a sudden your memories start going, but I feel responsible for the funny car fiasco where we were spending our tax money on advertising on Hawaii on the side of this race car and I feel personally responsible for that because one day we were out at Pearl Ridge golf course playing golf and we're getting ready to tee off. I was there with a few other reporters and the governor shows up with his little group and they put them right out in front of us. And uh we get to the third hole and it's a par three and the governor's standing next to the pin, which is supposedly the safest place to be when people are shooting in on you, and I happened to hit one of the best shots of my life and it came in like a scud missile, and they ran off the green and I think that's when the governor said, "No more golf, I'm into race cars."
[00:11:21] John Waihee: I don't know if that's a left, that sounds like the left-handed way of promoting this book again, you know. Charlie the golfer. I don't remember any of that.
[00:11:32] Randall Roth: Uh, Charlie is is sometimes known as the "Humor Czar" or the "Dean of Political Incorrectness". Um, tell us a little bit about your uh your slant on things and and John, I want to get your reaction to this.
[00:11:45] Charlie Memminger: Well, a lot of a lot of times it's it's just sort of being funny, but I think there's a message in there. For instance, one of the best working departments in government is the Garbage Department. The Ukupau system to me is a model for all other government agencies. Get your work done and then get out of there. So not only are we getting away from that now, I would suggest they put all the government departments on that, especially the legislature. Get him in there, get your work done and go home. You get the same amount of money. Do you don't you think that would focus them a little more on what are you running from the pin now?
[00:12:15] John Waihee: I agree. What do you say? Yeah, I think he's right. You know, Ukupau was a great invention. You know, get, especially dealing with politicians, you know, get the job done, get out of there. And the problem is when they hang around and try to do good. You know, but they don't They hang around and try to do good. That's the problem. But the every time they do that, they're doing it because somebody else wants them to do good. You know, like the I don't want to keep pumping Charlie up, but he wrote two good articles, really, two good articles and they didn't mention my name at all. And I was and that's why probably they're they're better than average. But anyway, the the first was about the spanking thing.
[00:13:01] Charlie Memminger: And the car wash. You know, this there was an ordinance to blame. Car washing and condos or something, I mean. That was another another typical example. Actually, that was that wasn't a law. It was part of the uh some some existing federal law on the environment. But the idea that you can't wash your car in a condo because the runoff goes into the water, and I just pointed out that think of what happens in a typical rainstorm. I mean, all the millions of gallons of water that comes down and hits the roofs and the parking lots and the dirty cars and all that and that goes out into the water. So, you know, I think one guy, one or two guys at a condo washing their cars is not a problem.
[00:13:37] John Waihee: Well, I tell you there was when I was governor there were I not there were there wasn't a week that went by that we didn't run into some crazy kind of situation and that in hindsight would probably be ridiculous. The the problem is to survive in that environment you need to sort of convince yourself that all of these things are very important. Well, you know, they need to And I think it's down to a leadership problem, because the leaders of the, say the, say the the heads of the committees or the heads of the of the House and Senate, they have to tell these guys, don't bring any of these goofy bills up. You know, we're here to focus on this, focus on this. I don't want to hear about spanking, I don't want to hear about car washing, I don't want to hear about state fish. We're here to you know, try to put the financial wheels back on this on this state.
[00:14:22] John Waihee: Now, John, you know, maybe it's just me, but this sounds like a good idea. No goofy bills. Why why don't they do that? You know, I'd go for it. I'm sure Sukri would go for it. Mr. Gucci would go for it. And I and I'm not saying that they don't ever do anything good because I I I think for instance what they've done to to try to attract film the film industry to Hawaii is great. That film the film office they got up in Diamond Head, that is a really good idea to to spur investment and to get these guys in here making films. Why don't they have a small business office up there on the side of Diamond Head to help small businesses get through the red tape and do everything they they can to keep these guys going?
[00:15:00] John Waihee: Well, you know, again, and I guess a lot of a lot of this, you know, just if uh just looking at it from from different perspective. A lot of this has to do with how you view government, and how you view government often times is viewed from where you sit. You know, I mean, people the same people who on one hand would would hold a position that would be characterized as um I guess for for less government. You know, small business people and so forth. Uh and would would say, you know, we don't need any government at all, but then they'd be you might find them up at the legislature. Mhm. In lobbying for some of the same things they're talking about. No, don't try to turn me into a freeman here. I I I there is there are some very serious roles of government but we're losing track of what they are. For instance, do you know the main difference between the first world countries and the third world countries? Uh uh address. No, [unintelligible — audio glitch] See? Rebar is what keeps buildings from falling down during you know, hurricanes and everything like that. You need government regulations for buildings. You know, we need rebar. But you don't need government to come in and then tell you uh to suddenly say that you got to pay a one cent tax on a pack of ketchup. Or or you know, just dump all these fees and taxes on top of you so you can't even breathe.
[00:16:26] John Waihee: Well yeah, well you say Well I see I don't know where your head's It's a re it's a regulatory it's more of a regulatory role in a lot of cases. I I I think that uh there is a feeling from everybody on the street that government regulates too much. But and and but you know, it's interesting, yeah, if you if you play around with this right left stuff, you know. One of the hallmarks of the great political debates of this country is that if you're for gun control, you want to regulate the sale of guns, you're on the side of regulation. Right. You know, you you're on the you're the left, and and so if you're on the right, you're conservative, you don't want this, too much government regulation. And yet, when you're talking about something more personal, like uh life or uh the right to life and or choice, and then the same often times, the same people who will argue that government ought not to be regulating anything would be on the side of in fact, uh regulating. When you say choice, do you mean which choice of gun or Well, you know, I don't know how which choice of gun, which choice of whatever. You know, but but these issues get very complicated.
[00:17:34] Randall Roth: Well and also you bring up an important thing, which is they we're so into labels now that they want they want to know are you from the left? You from the right? Are you from the center? And then, and then you're expected to be to have this entire manifesto be on the program and and uh people aren't like that.
[00:18:03] Charlie Memminger: You know that or well well one of our friend of mine said you tell a Republican in Hawaii, you know you're a Republican in Hawaii, when you're a member of the State Senate, and you go into your caucus room, you're the only person there, and you're a quorum. And there's there's another way to tell Republicans in Hawaii, if they have a government job, usually address them as uh federal judge.
[00:18:29] Randall Roth: I I will remind listeners that this is the Price of Paradise Radio Show. We call it Pop Radio. We're talking about the role of government. With me in the studio is former governor John Waihee and Honolulu Lite columnist Charlie Memminger. If you would like to get in on this conversation, just call us at 955-8821. If you're on a neighbor island, the number is 1-800-955-8821. We welcome your question or a brief comment. We just want to keep it real friendly and real.
[00:19:00] Speaker 1: productive. And uh, so the phone lines are open, and I think there's $50 sitting on the table for somebody that can tell us uh how many points of the contract with America were actually enacted or something like that.
[00:19:11] Speaker 2: And what they Yeah. And And and you know, if you want to if you want to show how smart you are, what what they were.
[00:19:16] Speaker 1: Okay. Let's go to a caller from Kona, Just. Good morning, Just.
[00:19:21] Speaker 3: Yeah, I I usually can't hear you when I live in uh Kauai, but I happen to be out on the road today, so I stopped by the phone booth and I heard the my old uh delegate mate from the '92 convention was on the radio.
[00:19:38] Speaker 1: All right. You mean the 78 convention.
[00:19:40] Speaker 3: What?
[00:19:41] Speaker 1: 92. 92. Okay.
[00:19:44] Speaker 3: Oh, anyway, um, I was uh very very uh surprised uh, Sir John, when I heard that uh, the most recent uh uh former governor, yourself, is challenging uh, his predecessor for uh a spot on the national committee, and I wanted to know what why I should uh support you at uh uh in two weeks at the uh Democratic state convention.
[00:20:15] Speaker 2: Oh, boy. Is this going to make big news? John Ariyoshi and John Waihee running against each other?
[00:20:21] Speaker 3: It's incredible to me. I'm I'm still reverberating.
[00:20:24] Speaker 2: Well, before before all the headline writers get out their pens, though, it's not going to happen. I I think what happened was that uh I, you know, uh, first of all, Governor Ariyoshi is the incumbent national committee man, and he told me that he was going to run, so I'm we're not going to run against each other. What happened was that they uh nobody knew which who would be running. Both of us were out of town. And so we had some enthusiastic uh people uh nominate both of us at the same time. So don't worry, we won't be I won't be running.
[00:20:56] Speaker 3: Yeah, but I was looking I I was looking forward to some excitement at the convention. It looks like it's just going to be cut and dried this time.
[00:21:02] Speaker 2: Uh, I don't know. that the if you're a Democrat uh, you know, you know you're a Democrat in Hawaii um, when you when you go to a convention and nothing ever is that quiet.
[00:21:16] Speaker 3: I actually we are bringing some some uh old issues rehashed from the Big Island, and some of them are going to be pretty hot and controversial.
[00:21:25] Speaker 1: Just, we'll keep our eyes open for that. We're going to have to move on so we can hear a lot of voices. Appreciate your call.
[00:21:31] Speaker 3: The the the problem is that all these Democratic all these lines all these party lines are starting to get uh tangled up, you know, like for example I I I was going to say, you know you're a Republican in Hawaii when the state Democratic Party chairman criticizes your actions as a lawmaker.
[00:21:46] Speaker 2: And then I suddenly realized that that happened to Democrats recently, didn't it?
[00:21:49] Speaker 1: Interesting situation. Let's go to Renee in Makiki. Good morning, Renee.
[00:21:53] Speaker 4: Good morning. Um, I have a question for um Governor Waihee if I could.
[00:22:01] Speaker 1: Thank you. Surprise. Surprise.
[00:22:05] Speaker 2: It's been a year and a half.
[00:22:11] Speaker 4: We're not yet. I hate to do this, but I want to get serious on you.
[00:22:15] Speaker 2: No, no. No, no serious questions. Go ahead, Renee.
[00:22:18] Speaker 4: Okay. Okay. Cuz this is something that I've always wanted to know. Okay. You're like I went to this workshop and according to UHA economists, the city shortfall is proportionally as large as the states. Okay. You know, 16 years ago, bang, we saw homelessness. When the federal deficit came out, bang, we saw homelessness on the streets immediately, right? But I never hear anything in the last 16 years about how the federal deficit is impacting state and county budgets, except, you know, that $60 million in social service entitlements that we might get in the future and the city no longer gets sewer fees so now all the homeowners got to pay sewer fees, right? But other than that, I'm really very interested that's why I want to ask Governor Waihee, in how is the federal deficit impacting the state budget? And I figured you'd be the guy to ask.
[00:23:06] Speaker 2: Good question.
[00:23:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, actually, actually it is uh it isn't, it has major impact on on the state budget and I don't think that that is uh understood enough, or at least recognized enough in in the media here. Uh, you know, this obviously one of the critical factors in the slowdown uh in the state revenues is the economy, but the real hidden, I think uh real hidden uh uh factor and the major one is is what's happening on a federal level. First of all, it's been going on for a long time, and [unintelligible — audio glitch] analyze the growth of government in the United States, local government in the United States, in the last 10 years, it it has exploded and one of the major reasons for the explosion has been the fact that the federal government is starting to uh reduce its role in in in in uh in helping the people of this country. Now, the cost of doing that occurs in two ways. First of all, uh what they what the government does is that it mandates, the federal government mandates that certain things be done and oftentimes, they don't fund it. So that leaves it up to the local community to go out and get the funds. The second thing and Democrats were were famous for doing that because we always like to do good. So we we make sure that everybody knew that this ought to be done. What the Republicans have contributed to the to the main to the problem is that as they um as they they didn't take away the mandates, but they started taking away the money. And they started to uh in fact ignore some of these problems. I I think that uh before it gets better, it's going to get a lot worse. And um, a lot of what we're seeing uh happened to our social programs are happening because uh, the on the national level, we haven't gotten our act together with regard to the obligations of government.
[00:24:56] Speaker 1: So what what we need to be able to do that is to probably say the Republicans take over the the keep control of the Congress, then you're going to need representatives from Hawaii who can go in there and actually work with those people.
[00:25:11] Speaker 2: One of the problems I have with your humor, Charlie, is I don't I don't always understand. I know that was supposed to be funny, but actually I I I had, I'm just saying instead of instead of, instead of, What what were you trying to say? What what were you trying to say?
[00:25:24] Speaker 1: Okay, instead of Neil Abercrombie, maybe we should just have Bumpy kind of Hailey over there.
[00:25:28] Speaker 2: Where, in in in in Congress? Sure. Well, I tell you what. I I you know, I don't know. I think Neil's doing a I'd leave Neil there, but let me just say this. Bumpy couldn't be couldn't do any worse than some of the people they now have in Congress. And his name would fit in. You got Bumpy. And that's I guess that's the reason why I have a higher a higher degree of tolerance for what happened in the state legislature [unintelligible — audio glitch] you might have. You you have to stay here and live with it. I have to go up to Washington and when I came home, I said, oh, this is wonderful.
[00:26:01] Speaker 1: Okay, in in light of what you just said about the trouble that that you know, these these guys are facing trying to uh deal with less money. Isn't it just more important then for the leadership to uh say look, we have got to focus on getting streamlined so that these programs we have work instead of um expanding even more.
[00:26:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, I I think that's right. I think that we we need to focus on uh streamlining, on effectiveness in government and and all of these things. Uh, the the thing, the bottom line is that uh there's going to be a major squeeze going on because if the federal government is mandating, and and in many cases, they ought to mandate uh uh certain uh things be done. Uh um and they're not funding it. And it's going to happen on the local level uh and and the so the growth of government is going to happen on the local level and at some at some point in time, there's not going to be enough resources to to cover it. But um you got to you got to be more effective.
[00:27:06] Speaker 1: Just let me ask you a a question because earlier, I think you you really put your your finger on on what to me is at the core of this and that is it it kind of depends on how you look at government. People look at government differently. How do you look at government?
[00:27:21] Speaker 2: Well, I I I tell you what, I you know, I I have this kind of like a I think that government has uh like three functions. One is that we they need to provide security for its citizens, it need to provide justice and it needs to assure response uh opportunity. I mean those are broad philosophical concepts and within that spectrum, we argue back and forth. I don't have the same feeling that government is inherently bad, uh that some people may have. I think government in many cases is too big, too intrusive and they ought to get out of it. But at the same time, government does what people want. Right. I mean, you know, they they that's what you're there for.
[00:28:03] Speaker 1: But they but also the the whole idea of talking about government as as if it's a third party somehow. I think if people would start talking about it in terms of it's me. This is me. And so it's uh it's not that government is bad. You yeah you can't say government is bad because government is us.
[00:28:20] Speaker 2: Well, but there are people who who talk about, and I think that's that in many respects, that's the philosophical line. If I was to go to a line, a dividing line between what roughly could be considered the right and the left in this country, it's precisely that. There are people who believe that any kind of organized government is inherently bad, and while it may be necessary, it ought to be something that's grudgingly uh used, and there are others who believe that the government is is is us. I mean, it's a tool, and uh sometimes maybe they have a tendency to like, you know, overuse it, [unintelligible — audio glitch] that's the. But you you can easily identify the two camps. The one of them the one type live on places called ranches and the other place live on places called compounds.
[00:29:08] Speaker 2: Well, Yeah. Well, it it also because, you know, it you know, there's a tendency for people who need garbage collected to uh, you know, have a different point of view about government services than those that uh, you know, dispose of their own waste out in the open range. Don't ask me on that. Keep moving forward here.
[00:34:08] Speaker 1: Andrew from Makiki. Good morning, Andrew.
[00:34:10] Speaker 5: Good morning. How are you? I read your column all the time, and and Governor Waihee, I have your uh contract with America here. Yet you have 10 bucks on the table?
[00:34:19] Speaker 1: Yeah, what what is it?
[00:34:20] Speaker 2: Okay, the first was the Fiscal Responsibility Act, that was the Balanced Budget. Then there was the Taking Back the Streets Act, that was the anticrime package. There was the Personal Responsibility Act, that's the one that they uh denied increase for AFDC uh child on welfare, the Family Reinforcement Act, that was the uh Child Support Enforcement Tax, the American Dream Restoration Act, that was the 500 per child tax credit, there was National Security Act, which was the US troops on a UN command. [unintelligible — audio glitch] That one went down. Number seven was This is this is This is this is the from Punch Bowl. Okay. Well, what what I'm saying is that now you my question is how much of this actually got Wait a second, it was two parts. You said you wanted all 10, and I'll give it the 10 bucks. I'll give it the 10 bucks. All right. Go ahead. Well, I guess we are Go ahead. Well, I guess we are I say give them the 50. I mean, you took a shot at it. You took a shot at it. Yeah, okay. None of it passed, you understand. Wait a second, the first one, uh making Congress accountable for uh the same things in the private sector. That was the first one, that went through the That one that passed, but all the rest of that stuff didn't pass. Okay, I'll give him the 50. That was Okay, the national security Okay, you got that. The Senior Citizens Fairness Act, Job Creation and Wage Enforcement Act, Common Sense Legal Reform Act, Loser Pays law, you know about Yeah, all of those things got passed by some committee or did Newt Gingrich put it out that none of it became law. That's like saying that when the House passes a measure, it went to the Senate, it passed. And that was my point. None of that was enacted. you're going to I mean, are you going to use the same type of, you know, uh scrutiny that that the Democratic Congress had for the last 36. Yeah, no, all I was saying is that when we call the Hawaii state legislature a do nothing legislature, and in many respects compared to other sessions, it probably did a lot less. We need to take a look at all the heat that was going on in Washington and realize that for all of these measures, all of with these pretty names and and uh that and and their best of intentions, never passed, either. Okay. Except for the be except for the first one that you mentioned.
[00:36:26] Speaker 1: Andrew, thank you for your call.
[00:36:28] Speaker 2: Can I get my 50 bucks? What do you think? No, you there's two more. There's two they passed they passed [unintelligible — audio glitch] passed The the Republican uh Congress passed three measures. Three measures out of the entire uh contract with America, and you named one.
[00:36:43] Speaker 5: Okay, the anti crime bill?
[00:36:45] Speaker 2: No, anti crime bill is not passed yet. Okay, the 50 Thank you. Call back and give me a name and we'll check it out. Wait I you said name all 10. No, no. I said name the measures that passed in the Congress of the Contract for America.
[00:37:04] Speaker 1: Call us back Andrew. You've added to our conversation, but you don't have your 50 bucks, at least not yet.
[00:37:09] Speaker 2: Oh, you welching on me, okay. No, no. See, that's that's a typical thing. The headlines tomorrow, Waihee Welches.
[00:37:16] Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I'll get you the other 25. Okay, he got 50%. Give him 25 bucks. I mean I give him a pro rating. Thank you. Thank you Andrew. Uh, with that, Charlie, I know you um you put together a little list for us. Um you know you've had a bad day in in Paradise when when Nu when Nu calls and and tries to win your 50 bucks or whatever. What What'd you come up with? You know it's going to be a bad day in paradise when uh let's see where do I want to start here?
[00:37:45] Speaker 1: You look out in your driveway and Peter Savio and Henry Peters are standing out there pointing at your house and laughing.
[00:37:54] Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. Okay.
[00:37:55] Speaker 1: You know it's going to be a bad day when you need to get a home equity loan just to buy a cantaloupe. You know it's going to be a bad day when you find out the state fish is a can of Spam and it's receiving worker's comp. You know it's going to be a bad day when you go out to wash your car and Terence Tom is standing there controlling the faucet. And you know it's going to be a bad day when Governor Waihee and Jared Jossam join up, become members of the same law firm and do work for Bishop Estate.
[00:38:22] Speaker 2: Hey!
[00:38:23] Speaker 1: You know, you know, John, I don't think he's a Democrat. I don't know what- what do you think?
[00:38:25] Speaker 2: No, I don't think he is, even Memminger?
[00:38:28] Speaker 1: Memminger. Oh, Memminger is one of these leftover libertarians who can't make up his, can't make up his mind about when he's going to grow up. You know, it's uh, it's sort of interesting.
[00:38:38] Speaker 2: I got to tell you though, that my experience and Jared Jossam and myself are very, I mean, I have a hard time adjusting, you know, but we- we decided, he decided to join up with me because he believed all this Republican stuff.
[00:38:49] Speaker 1: Did he get to play golf with you and the President?
[00:38:50] Speaker 2: No. No, no. No, he's got to earn that. Take down the Nixon picture, my god.
[00:38:54] Speaker 1: He didn't even let him carry your bags or anything?
[00:38:56] Speaker 2: No, no. But he, you see, he believed all his stuff. You know, he says, he says, when he was walking around party championing while he made the government grow and everything else. He says maybe I'll join up with him and we'll grow the same way in the private sector.
[00:39:07] Speaker 1: Okay. I want to remind listeners this is the Price of Paradise radio show. Our phone lines are open. The number is 9558821. With me in the studio, we have former Governor John Waihee in his uh coming out party, the first time in about a year and a half that he's been talking publicly about uh some of these fun, interesting, uh and sometimes controversial issues and Charlie Memminger, who is the humor Czar or dean of political incorrectness in Hawaii and the author of Honolulu Lite, both the column that appears in the Star Bulletin and a new book that you can find wherever fine books are sold and I guess some of your better 7-11s, too. Charlie told me this morning.
[00:39:46] Speaker 1: I uh I was appearing somewhere recently but uh I was asked what bookstores are at and I said, well, they're not at some of the bigger bookstores, for instance. They had me uh, you've heard of Barnes & Noble.
[00:39:57] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
[00:39:57] Speaker 1: Well, they had me booked to uh do a signing out in Nanacooly at Barnes and Silva.
[00:40:01] Speaker 2: And uh so that was kind of bad.
[00:40:04] Speaker 1: There you have it folks. Barnes and and Silva. If you'd like to uh ask a question or make a-
[00:40:09] Speaker 2: and some of you looking at your house. Ask a question or make a brief comment, the number is 9558821. And I want to ask some questions about some of those uh of you John in a minute, but we've got a couple more callers. Let's go to Jim in Punchbowl. Good morning, Jim.
[00:40:23] Speaker 3: Uh yes, um I wanted to uh kind of talk a little more about what was uh talked about before and that is the uh the budget cuts coming from the federal level. Um one of the things that uh concerns me is that there's a kind of a mean and stingy cutting edge to all this. And that is that um everything is directed towards welfare people. And the thing is that uh concerns me is that um nobody ever mentions the role of the Federal Reserve and its policy making. A lot of people will say, particularly Republicans, is that the public sector doesn't ever create any jobs.
[00:41:02] Speaker 3: But the truth is it does uh through the Federal Reserve system. It creates and um and creates employment and unemployment by raising and lowering the interest rates. And one of its uh ongoing policies is to maintain a real unemployment rate of 10 to 12% of the population. And if you have a job program and you employ 100,000 people, they consider this statistically uh important. And so what they'll do is raise interest rates to uh disemploy this uh another 100,000 people.
[00:41:37] Speaker 1: Jim, let's let's get a reaction to that. Okay. Okay. The thing is what I want to say is that if you dump people and say that they should get a job, but the Federal Reserve system is not going to allow them statistically to get a job. Uh what what do you do with this uh 10 to 12% of the population? Who wants to take that one?
[00:41:57] Speaker 2: Uh this is way over my head. I mean I I can't-
[00:42:01] Speaker 1: There's not much humor there, I think.
[00:42:02] Speaker 2: I can hardly balance my own checkbook. I don't think I can take on the Federal Reserve here. But if uh if I do do, I get $50.
[00:42:10] Speaker 1: Forget it.
[00:42:11] Speaker 2: There's the guy, there's a human being out there right now actually trying to find out what the three things were. Uh-huh. Which is something more than most of the other- I want to- I want to ask about Jim. Uh talk to this, cause I I I think I recognize Jim's voice.
[00:42:24] Speaker 1: Uh- oh.
[00:42:25] Speaker 3: Yeah, this is Jim Brewer.
[00:42:26] Speaker 2: Right. Hi, how you doing, Jim?
[00:42:27] Speaker 3: Fine, Jim.
[00:42:28] Speaker 2: Jim picketed me every time, all-time I was Governor, you know, [unintelligible — audio glitch] it was in a friendly kind of a way, because he's the housing advocate and I I and I don't know, Jim. I- I don't know the intricacies of whether on the unemployment statistics, but I can say that the Federal Reserve is a major claw- is a major factor [unintelligible — audio glitch] current state of our economy because they do fluctuate the interest rates. And when interest rates go down, people buy more houses and 1% drop in an interest rate uh means your ability to buy uh or or live in a home and and I think sometimes I I personally believe that uh um that we've been a little bit too conservative with the- if I can use the term- uh with the- with the way we're handling interest rates right now. And I think that's having an impact on- on the number of people that are unemployed and that are homeless.
[00:43:22] Speaker 3: Well, okay, Jim.
[00:43:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, the main thing though is that when the Federal Reserve says, when- when- when government policy says tells these people, the solution is for you to get a job, but the Federal Reserve system says, no, we're not going to let 10 to 12% of the people get a job, then there's something perverse about the whole situation.
[00:43:40] Speaker 1: Okay, Jim, thank you for your call. We really appreciate it.
[00:43:43] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[00:43:44] Speaker 1: Um, just want to remind listeners this is Pop Radio. Uh if you'd like to uh see what we think will be a- a report on this on Channel 2 News tonight at uh 6:00 or 10:00, you might tune in. We have Beth Hillyer and uh Bob Cramer down here filming the- the show and we think probably they'll be a report at 6 and 10 on KHON Channel 2 News. Uh someone called in and said, hey, give the guy 25 bucks.
[00:44:08] Speaker 2: That was my wife, that's my wife's writing. My wife's sitting there next to me, my wife's sitting out there, you know? and What is Mother's Day?
[00:44:14] Speaker 1: Yeah. Tell them give the guy 25 bucks.
[00:44:18] Speaker 2: for uh getting one. Have a heart. I'm a businessman, though.
[00:44:22] Speaker 1: You're not all Democrat, right?
[00:44:24] Speaker 2: I used to do that. There's a little bit of Republican in you.
[00:44:26] Speaker 1: Tell him, tell him call up. Tell him call up again, we'll take his name. I mean, he could go buy his mom some flowers. The massive infusion of capital into the economy in in Hawaii. That went her present for Mother's Day.
[00:44:39] Speaker 1: John, we've- John, we've had a couple, uh you know, serious topics come up and- and you've been a private citizen for about a year and a half, and you're in government for a long time before that. Eight years as Governor, eight years as as Lieutenant Governor, and and very active in- in the legislature and the Constitutional convention, and you've been a public figure for a long, long time. All of a sudden, a year and a half of being a uh uh a real person or whatever you call somebody who's no longer in the public eye or trying not to be in the public eye. Yes.
[00:45:08] Speaker 2: Um, do you look back over the last year and a half? Anything uh-
[00:45:13] Speaker 1: Oh, it's been fun. Uh you know, it's also been a sort of an adjustment. I- I- I- I've been, for example, I- as you know, I've been on the show number of times before as Governor, and yet, I didn't remember where it was, cause I never had to drive here before. And then it was also fun waking up. I mean, I need somebody to drive down there so I can jump off and run.
[00:45:33] Speaker 2: I thought I thought that's why you hired Jared Jossam, isn't he uh-
[00:45:36] Speaker 1: I mean he doesn't drive. He's a Republican. He's out to drive him around.
[00:45:40] Speaker 2: And you probably haven't cut in on Charlie on the golf course anymore either, right?
[00:45:43] Speaker 1: I gave up golf, frankly. It just wasn't [unintelligible — audio glitch] thrill went out of it. When you can't, you know, hit balls into the- hit the Governor, it was just Ah, so I tell you. John, what what are- are the single most important issue that that all of us have been reading about, thinking about, talking about over the last year and a half. As you consider the future of Hawaii, what's- what's the one issue that we really ought to be hitting especially hard and trying to figure out how to deal with it?
[00:46:10] Speaker 1: Uh- the- the way we keep our society um harmonious. I think our single most, you know, I mean the immediate stuff is we talk about budget and we talk about all of this thing. But what- what Hawaii is, what Hawaii uh- is most important uh I think issue is, is how we keep a society where people can be different. You know, what are the aspirations of native Hawaiians can be satisfied, and newcomers, and uh other people who have been here for a long time and still have a workable society.
[00:46:41] Speaker 1: How if we- if we think that that is the most important thing that we do, then everything else we do, how we- how we handle the budget, how we deal with worker's comp, how we deal with all of these things, um has to have that objective in mind. And I- I I think that's the most important. I think most important is how we keep a uh we keep a society that's harmonious instead of Bosnia-like.
[00:47:06] Speaker 1: Charlie, have you have you written about sovereignty? Some people see that as as a possible Oh, no, I've never mentioned sovereignty. a possible wedge uh in the community, others uh see that as as something that can help with the harmony. Uh
[00:47:18] Speaker 1: I wanted to go out and check out John's car out there. See if it has a sovereignty license plate on it. No, but it says support. Come here, here school. Actually, I- my car. I want everybody to know who's driving the car just in case. You know I don't want any I have a call, my column on Monday is about a scene I witnessed to a guy on a sovereignty uh license plated uh sport utility vehicle almost running down some people in a parking lot. Um, it's it's like, you know, I think goodwill is a commodity, and even though some of the Hawaiian groups might not think they need the public's goodwill, I think they do, and I think Bumpie found out what how far goodwill can go. Because I think the fact that he didn't get held on on bail was the goodwill of the community. Yeah, by the way, that was the third good article that you wrote.
[00:48:02] Speaker 1: Well, you know, I mean really, you Three of the better ones. Three of the better ones. And and I think somebody, and I don't know who, but somebody is definitely uh, benefiting from keeping all the Hawaiian groups split up. And uh I don't point the finger at anybody in particular, but um, it's kind of sad, you know. I mean, they you'd like to see uh them all get together and get something done. Why wouldn't some, you know, former public figure, um, I don't know, a- a former Governor, Hawaiian uh descendant, uh why- why wouldn't a person like that go in there and kind of get them all together? Right.
[00:48:38] Speaker 1: I- you know, I I think that first of all, you- we need to know that people that are involved in the- in the uh Hawaiian movement uh are human beings. And they have and the same kind of uh aspirations, nobility, uh as well as sometimes, you know, idiocy that all human beings have. And so it's an evolutionary process. And pe- people make their mistakes along the way. But what- but that and- and make their mistakes along the way while they develop. That's one issue. But I think as government, as a society, all of us, those of us in the movement, those of us that support it, those of us that are worried about it, those of us that might even be opposed to it. I think if in Hawaii, what we ought to have as our main objective is the uh the society that we live in. And then if if you ask me, which is the question, what is the most important issue in Hawaii? The most important issue in Hawaii is how we're going to continue to exist uh in the kind of society that uh we all want it to be, that we can all where we can all live together. Uh it's fun. Uh it's and I think it's a mark of- uh it ought to be a mark of pride to be able to go across this country and say that I come from a state where people are different, and yet they tolerate with each other, and they live together. They don't have to like, you know, love each other, but we sure live together [unintelligible — audio glitch] in a well and respectful way.
[00:50:05] Speaker 1: Listeners are going to think this was a setup, but that's our topic next week. Really? How well are we getting along and and what threats uh do people see to our- our harmony. Uh I I tell you what. I- I don't think it's something, I think it's I think it's more than rhetoric, and I think it's something that takes constant vigilance. Uh I- I I don't think this is an issue that you can ignore, and uh I know when I was Governor it was an issue that was constantly on my mind, and still is. Uh, but you know, again, how you cut the budget, how you tax, what programs you keep, how you treat uh uh any kind of government function, ultimately reinforces or dissipates that harmonious uh relationship. But I I think you- I think what you're saying is right, and and it that the reality is going to come from a philosophical platform. But for instance, what happened in the legislature this year is sort of typical, where you don't have leadership in there getting people enthused, really focusing their efforts and saying, look, people want to believe that we're doing the best we can for them. Instead, people believe that each session now, from now on, is going to be uh several weeks or days of doing nothing, flurry activity in the last 24 hours, and then calls for special sessions after that. And they, it's- it's disheartening for them, I think. Yeah. And so, it's it's a leadership. If you if you have somebody who gets in there and says, look, we're going to streamline this government, we're going to make it, you know, I don't think anybody assumes that you can live in Hawaii at the same price that you can live in Kansas. We do pay a premium for living in Hawaii, and that's fine, but we also have to feel that we're getting the most bang for our buck uh all the way down the line. And I think that's a leadership problem. Right. And I think I'm sorely missed, but I think I spent the entire morning talking about that, Charlie. But you know, I thought we wanted to move on and do what, do hand what we can handle, you know. Let's go back to spanking.
[00:52:09] Speaker 1: We've got, we've got time for a couple quick calls. Let's go to Trudy in Waikiki. Good morning, Trudy.
[00:52:14] Speaker 3: Good morning. Thank you. I think the whole thing is uh, becoming a stage for Waihee to expound. It is time for Governor Waihee to say mea culpa or justify his uh wasting almost $100 million on the Capitol and endangering us when expert opinion seems to be that they should they should leave the asbestos alone. That's And also Charlie Memminger, I love you. I never- I haven't read you. I love you.
[00:52:41] Speaker 1: Well, thanks for calling and uh have a good day. Now go ahead, Trudy. Go ahead, Trudy. Finish up.
[00:52:46] Speaker 3: Well, that's it. I I want to hear John Waihee justify and he can just leave office and uh go about his business and suck up to Clinton and I- I am totally repulsed, but good-bye. I will never turn you on again.
[00:52:59] Speaker 1: Trudy, thank you for your call.
[00:53:03] Speaker 2: That was You see, you know- how, how can you tell, you know, how do you know you're a Republican? You know you're a Republican when you really want President Clinton out of office and her husband, too. You know, I mean, there are people Okay. You know, what- what Trudy's asking and and obviously she feels very strongly about it, but in in different ways, there are a lot of people in Hawaii I think that they want to ask a question that that's somehow related to that. What do you feel about it? I'll tell you what. From a political point of view, um redoing the capital, renovating the capital and removing the asbestos, was not one of the smartest things I ever did. But it was something, it was a decision that was out there that had to be that- someone had to make uh had to do something about because it was clear that that uh we needed to remove the capital. It was costing $5 to $10,000 to fix light bulbs, because of the precautions that you had to take in order to um ensure that the asbestos was not harmful to anybody else around. You- you- you must be an ex-politician. I- I think you just said it probably was a mistake. It was a political mistake, but I- if I had to do it again, I would do it again, because it was necessary. And the thing about it is, people are going to have yelled and screamed [unintelligible — audio glitch] talked about the cost of the renovation, but that there's also been an audit that came out that said that the the actual cost of what was done, was done in a more very efficient and cost-effective manner. It got buried because it didn't, you know, it doesn't make us uh doesn't make the kind of news that other that people are happy about. But don't you think it was a- a timing thing as much as anything else? If- if they had done this back when before before uh you know the money ran out Charlie, it's always timing. I mean I mean I sit around at night saying, why didn't they do it earlier? It was like- I mean the call benches. Right. I mean, you talk about a big mistake, the call benches was a mistake. But the call benches were bought three years before they arrived. And then I saw them arriving. And here we are cutting the budget, restricting things, calling for zero growth, and all of a sudden these call benches come wiggling up there in the typical government- uh speed and efficiency. They were due three years earlier. I mean, who, I- God. You should have seen my trauma. I- you know, I've dumped on- I've dumped on that whole project from the get-go. But, I'm beginning to feel that we got to put it behind us. It's done. And we got to, you know, it's what are we going to do now with what we have? Because we're in a totally different I mean you were- you were in at a time uh when just the way of doing business was a lot different than it has to be now. Well, it- it was sort of strange. My- my- my- I actually was in in two times. The first half of my- my term as Governor, we we had extraordinary uh revenues coming in. But ever since 1991, revenues have been declining. I mean, people forget that we had the Gulf War, we had Hurricane Iniki. All of that stuff was going on. So, we were- and I had the last three years as Governor, grow zero growth government. We still had to create a surplus. And when I left office and I left last year, and- uh we left over $290 million in surplus, but the economy still hasn't gone up. Federal money uh money is still being cut, and until some of those things turn around, it's going to constantly be decline. Your- your successor has- has I think given people a different impression, in terms of the shape things were in uh when you handed over the reins. Is that Well, one of the great things about being a successor is that you always have a predecessor to look back at, you know. I- I- I I I'm going to get into that, uh But he doesn't- but he doesn't get as much mileage out of it as say, you know, the Democrats in Washington pointing to Reagan and then saying, Oh, they screwed everything up. So Governor Cayetano kind of tries to do the same thing. But the fact is, he was- he was in the government at the time. He was part of the and
[00:57:00] Speaker 1: higher process.
[00:57:00] Speaker 2: Well, I think I think there were a lot of great things that happened, but I said, again, if if the if the people that write the news stories would go and back and read it, you know, and and it's fun. It's fun to go back and see how they were criticizing the fact that we were restricting government from 1991, almost every regularly. That's the good thing about reading Charlie's stuff, you know.
[00:57:21] Speaker 1: Now that you're out of the the public eye, you're a lot more consistent.
[00:57:24] Speaker 2: You know, I think there are a lot of people A lot of people that would expect someone who's who's the target of the media's let's call it attention, to maybe not be fond of the media. You've been out of the public eye for a year and a half. What do you think of the media?
[00:57:38] John Waihee: Well, actually, well, I tell you what. First of all, they on a personal level, they're great people. And and and I've always enjoyed talking to people in the media because they are among the most knowledgeable citizenry in the state. They know a lot, but not enough about everything. But anyway, they know. But on the other hand, I think the media is getting tame.
[00:57:55] Speaker 1: Well, I guess some way.
[00:57:56] John Waihee: I think I think they're getting tame.
[00:57:57] Speaker 1: After the time you spent now in Washington, don't you think I mean, the media here uh could be a lot harder than it is.
[00:58:05] John Waihee: I I think the media here is selective. You know, they they go after they sort of go after things that they they sort of follow each other on issues.
[00:58:14] Speaker 1: Well, for instance, my managing editor brought up a good point in something he wrote about how Milton Holt says, I'm not going to run again, so everybody just stops covering him. And so he gets a free ride for like a year, and all of a sudden, he pops up doing these bizarre things in the session. So somebody should have been on his case for the last year.
[00:58:32] John Waihee: You know, I'm going to I'm going to like there's a lot of selectivity. But personally, I like him. We want take one more call because we have Andrew again and I think he maybe is here to claim his 50 bucks.
[00:58:45] Speaker 1: Andrew call in. Andrew, are you there?
[00:58:48] Speaker 4: Yes, I am.
[00:58:49] Speaker 1: Okay. When we when we last talked to you, the former governor had acknowledged that you had found one of three things that had passed.
[00:58:56] Speaker 4: Actually, one of two.
[00:58:58] Speaker 1: Yeah, it was one of two, wasn't it?
[00:58:59] John Waihee: No, there's three there's three, but there's one that nobody knows, I mean so tiny that nobody knew about it.
[00:59:04] Speaker 1: You know, I wondered why you put 50 bucks up. But if you Andrew, Andrew call in, my wife says, well tell us what they are.
[00:59:11] Speaker 4: Okay, one is uh the media grant reforms, the give states uh power, that passed to poor and elderly populations, it was vetoed by Clinton.
[00:59:20] John Waihee: And the other one was the uh they repealed the uh 55 mph speed.
[00:59:24] Speaker 1: Exactly.
[00:59:25] John Waihee: That was the secret one. What's the other one?
[00:59:27] Speaker 4: And then the other one was the um, well the line item veto, that went through just last week.
[00:59:33] Speaker 1: All right, four, yeah.
[00:59:33] Speaker 4: Yeah, and we have uh an honest uh we could go down the list and look at the ones that were vetoed by Clinton. I mean, it's good debate.
[00:59:41] John Waihee: Well, no yeah, again again, I all I'm saying is I'm not I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to uh like justify or argue the the contract in America. But when we talk about a do nothing legislature, you got to kind of put that in context, and that's the only point of that.
[01:00:00] Speaker 1: But anyway, you My wife has gotten you the money anyway, uh, Andrew. And so if you can call, if they'll take your name, address, You're going to come down to Big Island Steakhouse where I work and you can give it to me.
[01:00:11] Speaker 4: Andrew!
[01:00:12] Speaker 1: All right.
[01:00:13] Speaker 4: I'm working today. You can come down. You can ask for Andrew.
[01:00:16] Speaker 1: That's it. Thank you very much. One of my favorite places, by the way. You know that I've been there.
[01:00:19] Speaker 4: You okay. Well, I'm working today.
[01:00:22] Speaker 1: Andrew, thank you for your call.
[01:00:24] Speaker 4: For 50 bucks.
[01:00:25] Speaker 1: Absolutely. I did it. All right. Take care. All right. Well, we're down to the last couple minutes. Um, John, any anything you'd like to share with the people out there?
[01:00:39] John Waihee: Yeah, I I think that uh, no, except that I think we all have a have a better sense of humor. You know, I mean, I one of the things I've learned about government, because we are dealing with things that are so serious, that if you don't learn to laugh at yourself, uh, then it doesn't work. I think if I have a criticism of the legislature and the executive branch right now, my criticism would be is that they lost their sense of humor.
[01:01:04] John Waihee: I don't think they laugh enough about the at at how at their own self importance. And if they did, they might be passing more legislation and then doing and doing even more things for Hawaii.
[01:01:15] Speaker 1: They need to read Charlie's column regularly. Why I I think Well his his column can be a little biased. Well listen, I I think that we got to get over this idea that we can't disagree and still do it in a enjoyable manner where uh we're not all hunkered down in our respective little compounds and and uh hating each other just because uh you know you're perceived as being from the right, left, or middle.
[01:01:38] Speaker 1: We got all this communication now. Look, right now, we got TV in here, we got radio, we got newspapers, and all and we have the internet, and uh all this communication just seems to be fragmenting people. That's 72 channels of television now, in Hawaii. And it's like we need to use it to talk to each other instead of just uh rope ourselves off. And so that's why I'm I'm glad, you know, to finally get to sit down with you and talk like this.
[01:02:05] John Waihee: The last time we did this was at the rose.
[01:02:07] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I think I got a P to saw you and Henry P you at his house and laughing. Come on. All right. With that, I want to thank my guests, former Governor John Waihee and the Dean of political incorrectness, Charlie Meminger. Uh, our director of operations is Jeff Alardi, our producer is Suzy Roth. Listen next week when we're going to talk about how well the people of Hawaii are getting along and what threats there might be out there on the horizon to our uh social harmony. We're going to have Daviana McGregor from the University of Hawaii, also from the University Peter Maniacas and Joan John Okamara and then Jim Me, an attorney.
[01:02:44] Speaker 1: Uh, you've been listening to the Price of Paradise radio show. I'm Randy Roth, Aloha.