OFF TO THE RACES!
U.S. Senate
OVERALL: Daniel Akaka
REPUBLICAN PRIMARY: No one

Ed Case is a smart guy, the kind that you can imagine sitting down with a copy of T.S. Eliot??€™s ??€œThe Wasteland??€ ? and understanding the whole allusion-heavy epic poem without having to glance at Ezra Pound??€™s footnotes. Not a single one.
Judging by his performance during the recent debate?? ???€" and by the answers he submitted to Honolulu Weekly?? ???€" Case is an intellectual and man of many?? ???€"many?? ???€"words. He wants you to understand exactly why he makes the choices that he makes and why he stands for what he stands for.
For Case, there are no simple answers. Whether he??€™s talking about the threat of invasive species, sustainability, No Child Left Behind or his much maligned support of staying the course in Iraq??€"at least until the state is stabilized??€"Case is prone to book-length discussions. This is a man that despises the sound bite.
Of course, sometimes??€"if not most always??€"folks can listen to so much chatter. After a while, it becomes white noise; it begins to be ignored. Like former President Bill Clinton, Case would do well to learn to keep it short and to the point.
Daniel Akaka is just he opposite type. If case is a bookwormish college lecturer, who dazzles students with the girth of his knowledge and his ability to examine the complexity of any issue, Akaka is??€"or at least he has become??€"like the village wise man who conveys more with less, who speaks volumes by keeping quiet.
Or at least, that is what his supporters would like you to think about the 81-year-old junior senator. His docile demeanor-especially at his advantaged age??€"could be a sign the years have taken a toll on Akaka.
Never an intellectual heavyweight, never a mover and a shaker in Washington, Akaka may be too old for the job. In fact, many wonder if he will even make it through another six years.
But anybody who has watched the careers of they many elder statesmen who held on to office for too long??€"Strom Thurmond or Jesse Helms come to mind??€"??€"it??€™s less about electing a senator and more about electing his staff, the men and women who guide his hand. This may not be the case with Akaka. It??€™s simply a point to be made that age??€"and perhaps a softening of the mind??€"does not matter.
So what does matter? Character for one. Both men have it. There??€™s no questioning either Case??€™s or Akaka??€™s.
In the end it comes down to their positions and their visions for the future, as it should. And based upon those, Case is clearly a man that deserves a future in Hawai??€˜i politics. He??€™s a staunch environmentalist who knows that sustainability is more than just a buzz word; he knows employing alternative sources of energy like solar, wind and water power is the way to go, not tapping into the oil fields of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, an action that Akaka supports based on a belief that this is what all the indigenous people of Alaska want. The argument is disingenuous. This is what Akaka ally Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska wants. Why would Akaka want to damage one of the nation??€™s last unsullied wildlife refuges is beyond us.
But one thing is clear about Akaka??€"he will never ever support the Bush administration. And in this day and age when many Democrats let Bush and company do as they please without protest, without debate, then this surely counts for something. It counts for a whole helluva lot.
That??€™s not what to say that Case is a closet Republican. He is most assuredly not. The man is a progressive, albeit and independent-minded one who refuses to follow party lines just because that??€™s what the men who run the machine say.
However, it??€™s the one thing that Case hasn??€™t said that is the most troubling. He has not said that the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea built upon false claims and a misdirected need to strike back at our enemies, even if they weren??€™t the enemies that harmed us.
Case??€™s refusal to support and immediate withdrawal or set a timetable for such a withdrawal at the risk of destroying whatever progress has been made in Iraq is worthy of applause. We cannot simply leave. We broke Iraq, and now we must fix it. But Case??€™s refusal to admit that the Iraq war was a mistake, further compounding his unnecessary admission that he would have supported the invasion in the first place if he had been in office to vote on it, forces us to support Akaka.
This isn??€™t the last that we have heard of Ed Case. Nor should it be.