This editorial from seacoastonline.com really brings home the lies told by various members of the O'Brien junta. It's a good read. Here's part of it:
For those of you who might have been camping and unplugged from the news over Memorial Day weekend, Bettencourt announced Sunday that he will resign from the House immediately, after falsifying academic records submitted to the UNH School of Law.
Bettencourt had approached a fellow Republican lawmaker, Brandon Giuda, and told him he didn't have enough credits to graduate and needed an internship. Giuda gave him that internship but Betterncourt proved a no show, then lied about it to UNH. "I will never cover for a dishonest person," Giuda said.
The Concord Monitor reminds us that there are many questions still to be answered:
• It appears that O'Brien heard Giuda explain Bettencourt's fraud and was nonetheless willing to go along with the ruse that Bettencourt was leaving to take a job with the foundation. Was this an attempt to shield legislators and voters from the truth?
• Why didn't O'Brien demand an immediate resignation from Bettencourt?
• And when O'Brien heard Bettencourt's initial public explanation, was he troubled? If Giuda hadn't blown the whistle, would Bettencourt have avoided public scrutiny?
It seems to me, that if Bettencourt had done as Guida asked, Guida and O'Brien would have covered for him. That smacks of conspiracy. The voters of NH have a right to know the truth here.
In local news, James Pindell tweeted earlier today that Rep. Norman Tregenza of Madison has resigned, because he's moving out of the district. I hear he's been living out of the district for a while now. It must have been about to become public knowledge somehow - probably via real estate transactions in the newspaper.
There will be no special election - not with only about 10 days left in the legislative session.
Madison hasn't been represented for the last year and a half, so it won't make any difference. Tregenza spent his time in the House representing Ron Paul and the John Birch Society.
When this outstanding little nugget of news broke, I wondered how the mindless followers of this GOP base would react. Would their voters scramble once more for feeble excuses, would they shrug their shoulders and explain it away as being not so bad? These are distinct possibilities considering the hypocrisy and lack of ethical judgement on the part of not only legislators, but their blindly loyal followers. It certainly does smack of conspiracy to me, which may also call into question how a Madison rep. can not reside in his own district and how this never gets reported and dealt with the proper way. Many questions and many red flags. Let's stay tuned.
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