It’ll be fascinating to see how the drama plays out over the discovery that Rex Johnson, president of the Hawai’i Tourism Authority, used his state computer to email pornography to friends.

After a board meeting last week, two board members urged Johnson to resign from the $240,000 position. But in advance of another board meeting tomorrow, some heavy political muscle is lining up behind Johnson, including House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and Vice President Donna Mercado Kim.

When those three get together on anything, my first instinct is to cover the groin.

Johnson has apologized, but isn’t exactly contrite. His political backers say now would be a bad time to change leadership at the tourism agency given the slumping visitor market.

I don’t have strong feelings about what the proper punishment is for such indiscretions. The board of the tourism authority is in the best position to decide how much Johnson’s unbecoming behavior has damaged the agency’s credibility and whether the authority can effectively move forward without him.

I only hope members make the decision based on their own best judgment and don’t give in to the heavy-handed political interference.

I usually favor efforts to boost voter participation by making registration and voting easier, but I’m nervous about Senate Bill 156 passed by the Legislature over Gov. Linda Lingle’s veto to establish permanent absentee voting.

Absentee voting is a growing trend, with a third of Hawai’i voters casting ballots absentee in the 2006 general election. We may ultimately get to the point where it makes sense to do all voting by mail, which has worked well in Oregon.

But safeguards must be in place to preclude abuse, and critics are not convinced that SB 156 provides that — a concern expressed by Lingle in her veto message.

Under the measure, voters who request absentee ballots in this year’s election will automatically be mailed ballots in future elections without renewing their request. They will be removed from the rolls only if they die, move, request termination in writing or fail to vote.

The trouble is, the law provides no way for elections officials to know when people die or move. The Office of Elections and county clerks say they don’t have procedures to verify the status of absentee voters and doubt they can enact airtight safeguards on such short notice. Over time, we won’t be sure who is filling out the ballots and mailing them in.

The present requirement for new absentee ballot requests each election is working fine, and there was no urgency for the Legislature to rush forward with permanent absentee voting before the details were worked out.

Having failed to address the concerns of the governor and elections experts, lawmakers should plan a revisit next session before permanent absentee voting fully takes effect in 2010.

It’s frustrating that we keep getting stuck with these imperfect laws because Democratic legislators and the Republican Lingle don’t work out their differences in advance of passage, as was routinely done under Democratic governors.

Only one gubernatorial veto was overridden in the 40 years Democrats controlled the governor’s mansion, compared to 61 since Lingle was elected in 2002.

Political jokers and ticked-off smokers lead our “flASHback” on the week’s news that amused and confused:

• Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a record 53 bills passed by this year’s Legislature and lawmakers overrode 17 of them. Imagine how much they could accomplish if they didn’t spend so much time undoing each other’s work.

• Bar owners, gun enthusiasts and motorcyclists joined forces at the Capitol to protest the state’s anti-smoking laws. I’d disagree, but I’m afraid they’d take me for a ride to the country, get me drunk and shoot beer cans off my head.

• Body-piercers are petitioning the state for more stringent regulation. I’m for that. Anybody who proposes to tear me a new one should have to pass a test.

• The cost of an ambulance ride to the hospital is going up as the state revises fees. These are hard times when you can’t even afford a heart attack.

• Prosecutors hope removing parking spaces on Pauahi Street in Chinatown will stop unsavory characters from doing their business. They shouldn’t get their expectations up. Frank Fasi bulldozed the City Council’s parking spaces and they kept coming back.

• An attorney sponsored by the Hawaii Judiciary is offering a free talk on “Divorce Law in Hawai’i.” Don’t be fooled. Once lawyers start divorce proceedings, nothing is ever free again.

• CalorieLab Inc. says Hawai’i is the second-leanest state in the nation. I had my doubts until I saw a Census report that Honolulu’s population shrank in 2007.

• Feral guinea pigs are running amok in Nu’uanu. Just what we need, more feral cat food.

• Three O’ahu men facing stiff state fines for using the Superferry to remove river rocks from Maui said a bishop sent them to get the stones for their church’s charity imu. We’ll see if the Land Board agrees with the Bible that charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

• Speaking of church guys and stones, a microphone caught the Rev. Jesse Jackson crudely expressing a desire to lop off Barack Obama’s Hawai’i-grown testicles. Jackson apologized and called the dig “hurtful.” That was the political understatement of the week.

And the quote of the week …

… from Honolulu liquor administrator Dewey Kim Jr. after nearly half of bars and restaurants checked by undercover agents served liquor to minors:

“We need the businesses to take this stuff seriously. The law is the law.”

You’d think something simple like pulling their liquor licenses would do the trick.

If Gov. Linda Lingle follows through with her intention to veto Senate Bill 2878, the “Keiki First Steps” program to greatly increase access to preschools for 20,000 3- and 4-year-olds who could benefit, it’ll be interesting to hear her reasoning.

In her pre-veto message, she raised concerns about the $170 million it could cost to fully implement the system over 10 years, which is certainly daunting in the current economy.

But the bill passed by the Legislature provides only $250,000 in seed money to get us on the road to joining 36 other states that provide publicly funded preschool.

Presumably, the council that would be created to oversee the program would devote itself mainly to finding federal money and forging public-private partnerships to get something going that the state can afford.

The the Legislature’s Early Learning Educational Task Force and studies by Aloha United Way and the University of Hawai’i have suggested that greater access to preschools may be the most important step toward improving student achievement in our public schools.

It seems a no-brainer: If students, especially from disadvantaged groups, start kindergarten better prepared to learn, they’ll do better as they move through the system.

“Children who have access to high-quality early learning experiences are more likely to become high school and college graduates, avoid entanglements with crime, and successfully contribute to their communities as employees and citizens,” said Robert G. Peters of Hanahau’oli School.

You’d think the idea would be embraced by Lingle, who made improving public schools a major campaign promise and loves public-private partnerships.

She’s had little impact on education in her first six years; after failing to break-up the statewide school system into six local districts, she’s involved herself mainly with fighting the school board over relatively small amounts of money and a fascination with robotics competitions as a symbol of her innovation initiative.

The small initial investment in “Keiki First Steps” seems reasonable for the huge potential payoff, and appears a good opportunity for the governor to add her clout to the effort and leave a mark on public education.

Update: Lingle followed through with her threat to veto the bill, complaining that it “establishes a council with administrative and spending powers outside of the framework of existing State agencies that are responsible for funding, licensing, and regulating these programs.”

In other words, she sees it as another attempt by the Democratic Legislature to end-run the Republican administration by moving administrative functions outside of the administration — in this case giving a special council authority properly held by the Department of Human Services.

If the Legislature overrides the veto, the council won’t get much cooperation from the administration, and consequently will likely accomplish little in the next 2 1/2 years— much like the Hawai’i 2050 commission that lawmakers set up in a similar manner.

It’s a shame that important priorities keep falling by the wayside because of pointless politics on both sides. Surely they could have talked and worked this out in the public interest.

You can read the governor’s full veto message here:

I’m taking off early for the holiday, but I leave you with a “flASHback” on the weekly news that amused and confused:

• Local bankruptcies are up, tourism is down, layoffs are up, housing sales are down, fuel costs are up, stock prices are down. You know it’s a tough economy when even our ups drag us down.

• Barack Obama spent the week proclaiming his faith and arguing with a religious leader over the Bible. Is he running to succeed George W. Bush or Billy Graham?

• A fellow senator says John McCain grabbed a Nicaraguan official’s shirt and pulled him from his chair during diplomatic talks. No wonder Obama doesn’t want to to sit across the table from his GOP rival at campaign forums.

• Engineering professor Panos D. Prevedouros says he’ll challenge Mufi Hannemann for Honolulu mayor. This’ll be the first time Hannemann runs as the candidate with the easier-to-pronounce name.

• Prevedouros barely got the attention of Hannemann, who was busy simultaneously fighting with current Gov. Linda Lingle and former Gov. Ben Cayetano over rail transit. Looks like the mayor has already moved past 2008 and is power-lifting to prepare for 2010.

• House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell says voters shouldn’t decide rail transit because we find it “easier to tear something down than to be constructive.” If that were true, we’d tear down the Legislature. Wait … that would be too constructive.

• Some City Council members want to make drivers pay a toll for the congestion we cause when we venture downtown. Baskets for campaign donations would be placed on streets to the city center.

• The state says Aloha Stadium will look so new after a $185 million renovation that “it’ll be just like when you walked into the stadium the first time.” I don’t think so. The first time I walked in, it was in baseball configuration and the Islanders were playing.

• Honolulu police have new Tasers with video cameras attached to film rowdy suspects getting zapped. These will raise the bar for horror flicks that make your hair stand on end.

• Officials are tightening permit requirements for weddings on state beaches. The parties will now have to pass a sanity test.

And the quote of the week …

… from Sen. Daniel Inouye on the sinking economy:

“If there was a time when the phrase ‘Let’s get together, let’s work together’ makes good sense, now is the time.”

If he pulls off that miracle, he’ll be the next Hawai’i saint after Damien.