June 30, 2006

Beverly Harbin

In the deck of cards that is Hawaii politics, Bev Harbin is the joker. But setting up a website to say so with cartoon drawings put one local blogger in Harbin's crosshairs. She sent him a threatening letter, lamenting the online lampooning as a liability in her political aspirations — and waving the big stick of litigation to get him to take it down. Being a practical person, he relented. But the story isn't over. The tiff was picked up by other local blogs and discussed at HawaiiThreads.com, and netted an excellent write-up in the Honolulu Advertiser, a segment on HPR, and an AP wire story.

Harbin's efforts to silence one critic's lampooning of her eminently lampoonable political antics have, not surprisingly, backfired. The blogger's cartoons have a bigger audience than they ever had before. But, as the Advertiser piece notes, her actions in this relatively small scrap raise much bigger questions about free speech and the flawed laws she used as a weapon to stifle it.  

A bit of history. Harbin was appointed to the Leislature by Republican governor Linda Lingle to fill a slot left by a Democrat, saying she was a Democrat. The Democratic party pointed out she only joined the party mere days before her appointment, and was essentially an ally to the Republican administration. There was nothing the Dems could do but grumble, though, as Lingle's power to appoint is relatively unilateral.

Lingle's clever move quickly backfired, however, when it was revealed that Harbin had tax problems. Folks called for her resignation, but she refused. Then a criminal record was uncovered. The governor, sufficiently embarassed, ultimately called for her resignation as well. Of course, Harbin refused again. Since then, she's been shunned by both the party she sneakily adopted as well as the one that initially backed her. Nonetheless, she insists she's doing her job and says with a straight face that she's considering "re-election." (Except, of course, that she was never elected in the first place.)

Her bumbles and stumbles would be funny, if they weren't also a little scary. Not only is she a public figure, she's an office-holding politician, and one with a none-too-flattering reputation that she's stubbornly built all on her own. That she not only takes umbrage with having a spade called a spade, but also sends sherriff's deputies with angry letters promising a landslide of legal woes for someone who rightfully does so, is apalling.

Cybersquatting and identity theft are real problems, but Harbin herself makes clear that her reason for citing those issues in her threat is pure political expediency. "Were I to run," she wrote, "the site would really be in the way."

Well, the site's gone, but not the cartoons (republished at TalkStink.com), and if she thought those drawings were going to get in the way of her alleged political career, let's see what she thinks about the renewed scrutiny of her attacks against them.

Posted by Prophet Zarquon at June 30, 2006 11:15 AM

Comments

 

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Posted by Lynn Vasquez on June 30, 2006 4:45 PM:

Well, I waiting foa the sherriff's deputies to come knocking at my door. Guess they going be working over time cause get plenty Bloggers who are pissed!

Lynn Vasquez

 

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Posted by Lika on July 5, 2006 6:14 AM:

Seeeeeeeee, as why is you no can say notting nice, no pose to say notting. All dis huhu makes Lingle bad, ha'come her wen make la dat in da first place.
All da kine talk about "for the best interest of da people" blahblahblah, BS - az for da best interest of demselves.
Aiyuh BUT I 'pose to say something nice or shuddup! *L*

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