By Richard Borreca

Copyright staradvertiser

As the battle between Republican President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress grows in ferocity, the tip of the political spear is most certainly held by Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who can match the jibes of the caustic president insult for insult.

Born in Japan in 1947, Hirono immigrated to Hawaii with her family at age 8, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1959.

She is now 77 and since 2013 has served as the junior United States senator from Hawaii.

Hirono has been a force in Hawaii politics since her election to the state House in 1981. It has been a steadily upward political
career, marked with a few defeats, but accomplishments that saw her serving as Hawaii’s 10th lieutenant governor from 1994 to 2002 and the first elected female U.S. senator from Hawaii.

Hirono is now a national political figure, as observers look at her as “one of President Trump’s sharpest critics in the Senate noting that she makes a point of calling his government a regime, not an administration.”

Political observer Colin Moore, University of Hawaii associate professor and director of the Matsunaga Institute for Peace &Conflict Resolution, says Hirono views the battle to be one of “authoritarian overreach, not business as usual.”

Moore adds that Hirono was quick to call Trump a “dictator” after the funding freeze that threatened disaster aid.

“Hirono has carved out a role as one of President Trump’s sharpest critics in the Senate,” Moore says.

Hirono and the head of the FBI clashed over the unusual topic of how many pull-ups were needed to measure suitability to pass the FBI physical.

“One question I had is that you are now requiring applicants to be able to do a certain kind of pull-ups, which a lot of women cannot because of physiological differences. Are you requiring these kinds of pull-ups?” Hirono asked during a congressional hearing.

“If you want to chase down a bad guy, excuse me, and put him in handcuffs, you had better be able to do a pull-up,” Director Kash Patel responded.

Hirono replied, “There are concerns about whether or not being able to do these kinds of harsh pull-ups is really required of
FBI agents.”

Moore views the dust-up over fitness tests “as a way of arguing that loyalty and ideology, not competence, are the qualifications that matter to the Trump administration.”

Perhaps the most important part of the push-ups name-calling to take away is that Hirono, who is considered “as the dean of Hawaii’s congressional delegation since 2013, when Senator Daniel Akaka retired,” appears to not be ready to ever back down from a clash with the Trump administration.

Those who know Hirono when she is being candid appreciate that while her unedited comments may not make it into a family newspaper, no one will doubt her full-on sincerity.

“What sets Hirono apart is tone,” adds Moore. “It’s fiery, it’s blunt, and it makes her stand out as one of the Senate’s most forceful voices. Even more than during Trump’s first term, Hirono has become someone who is no longer willing to pull punches.”

The only thing to add is that if the Trump administration mixes it up with Hirono, it may not know what hit them.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com