Remove ImagesMaui County
The Exchange
November 30, 2006
WHO GAVE: John F. Lehman
WHO RECEIVED: U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka
DATE: Aug. 25, 2006
AMOUNT: $2,000
In the 1960s while in college John Lehman was a member of the
right-wing Young Americans for Freedom. From 1981 to 1987, he served as
Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy. He also reportedly took part in
the infamous 1986 "Tailhook scandal," whereby numerous naval officers
partied a little too hard with strippers and hookers—and allegedly
sexually assaulted at least one female officer—at an annual aviators'
convention. But by 1987 then Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, tired
of Lehman's constant bureaucratic squabbling, unceremoniously sacked
him (Lehman reportedly found out he was toast by turning on the
television). Then he disappeared into the private sector until 2002,
when he became a member of the 9/11 Commission. Today he's the founding
partner of J.F. Lehman and Co. as well as a member of the Hawai`i
Superferry board of directors. The proposed Superferry will carry
passengers and military vehicles between Oahu and Maui and is scheduled
for a summer 2007 launch. It's been exceedingly controversial, most
notably for the company's repeated insistence—backed by the courts—that
it didn't have to do any sort of environmental review. The Superferry
looks to be a done deal, but that hasn't stopped the always cagey
Lehman—and eight of his partners, five of whom are also Superferry
directors—from giving Akaka $12,000 this year.