If a drive to reform Hawai'i's sick political culture ever materializes, Honolulu Councilman Rod Tam can be its poster child.

He's constantly being called out for boorish, inept and ethically questionable conduct, but he's skated through 20 years in the Legislature and two terms on the City Council propped up by special-interest money and colleagues who look the other way.

Tam, who represents Makiki, Downtown and Punchbowl, most recently bared his 'okole with an ugly racial slur in which he called undocumented Mexican workers "wetbacks."

Besieged by outraged Latinos, the council gave Tam a half-hearted censure, excusing his lame excuses about Mainland words he didn't understand and snide remarks about political correctness.

Council Chairwoman Barbara Marshall rejected calls to remove him as zoning chairman and called him a "a real class act" for accepting censure for his no-class comments — an ironic example of the perverse logic that's so Rod Tam.

Apologists who say too much has been made of his offensive comments forget the many other times he's shamed himself and those who elected him.

Tam ran afoul of both state and city ethics laws in separate incidents in which he misused public resources for personal politicking and represented private clients before a city agency.

He defended spending his council office allowance to buy meals for constituents by likening himself to a country doctor making house calls — and then drew on his medical expertise to explain the physiology of it: "Basically, it's taxpayer money, and the taxpayers are eating their own money."

Council deliberations he led on locating an O'ahu landfill were an extended circus in which he suggested that our garbage be dumped in Koko Head Crater.

His most notable bills in the Legislature proposed afternoon naps and snacks for government employees.

Tam's incompetence was one of the few things former Gov. Ben Cayetano and former Mayor Jeremy Harris agreed on; Cayetano called Tam one of the "weakest people" in the Legislature and Harris said he was "the worst legislator over there ... a laughingstock."

Which goes back to the question of how a politician so little respected by those who follow local government closely can thrive in elected office for nearly three decades, with delusions that he'll be elected to even higher office yet.

One answer is the unprincipled monied interests that ply Tam with campaign cash. Despite his obvious deficiencies in serving the broad public interest, influence brokers think it worth their while to keep Tam around as a reliable vote for their selfish causes.

He scared off competitive opponents in his 2006 re-election campaign by amassing $211,000, the bulk of it from labor unions, corporations, big-money lobbyists, top law firms, professional associations, vendors and contractors seeking city work and a long list of prominent individuals interested in political favors.

Tam won 52 percent of the vote against little-known recording engineer Michael Wilcox, who had just $3,900 to spend.

The same dynamics are at work this year, with neither Mayor Mufi Hannemann nor any of the five incumbent council members up for re-election facing serious opposition so far, leaving voters with no choices on contentious issues like rail transit, refuse disposal and sharply higher taxes. Tam, who isn't up for election this year and can't run for the council again in 2010 because of term limits, was still sitting on nearly $50,000 as of Dec. 31 and says he'll use it to run for lieutenant governor.

He'd serve a higher purpose by posing for a poster warning that democracy in Hawai'i will keep withering if we don't stop feeding it tainted money with strings attached.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at http://volcanicash.honadvblogs.com.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.