Senate Hopefuls Hirono and Case Go Out Swinging

Chad Blair/Civil Beat

If ever there was a compelling argument for why there should have been more debates between Ed Case and Mazie Hirono, it came in the last 15 minutes of Dan Boylan's "Insights" on PBS Hawaii Thursday.

Case was asked about his vote in favor of the Iraq war, a critical matter that, to my knowledge, has not been brought up in this U.S. Senate campaign — certainly not on live television broadcast across the state.

Case explained that, like many people including top Democrats, he believed a brutal dictator possessed weapons of mass destruction and had a history that showed he would use them.

The lesson learned, he said, was that Congress has to be much more critical when U.S. presidents present them with information that indicates war is the only option.

Hirono pounced.

She said the other three members of Hawaii's congressional delegation at the time had the same information as Case yet voted against the war. Points for Mazie.

There were other revelatory moments in the debate, too, like where the candidates stand on use of unmanned killer drones and how they would evaluate a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Those are major issues for our next U.S. senator, yet Hawaii voters will likely not have the chance to hear the candidates debate them, directly and side by side.

Unless Oahu Democrats reschedule a forum they canceled last month, the Senate primary debates are pau.

Case accepted Boylan's offer to return to "Insights" for the Aug. 2 and 9 shows, the latter show just two days before the primary. But Hirono passed.

In this, Case scored points by stating that Hirono's plan for the next 58 days is to "go dark." Calling Hirono's refusal for more debates "a real tragedy," he argued that voters deserved more debates.

But Hirono said there had been plenty of debates and, besides, voters deserve a senator that "shares values."

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