NH Republicans in Disarray

We are approximately 10 months away from the NH Primary and the fun has begun. Candidates are visiting the state, some on a fairly consistent basis. They’re confining their energy to the bottom half of the state – as usual. They don’t bother much with the top half until they have to massage us for votes.

The Tea Party sprang into action in 2007. They espoused a sort of glibertarian philosophy; a lot of hard line fringe GOP mixed with some aspects of libertarianism. A lot of this was supported by low information voters who were willing to bellow about taxes, but wanted big gummint to leave their Medicare alone.

Political activists used the Tea Party (and the huge money behind it) to create a schism in the Republican Party, on both the state and national level. The Tea Party has bonded with the liberty crowd. In NH that includes Birchers and Free Staters. We’ve seen the old school Republicans in some areas forced out of office by libertea types. Nowhere is the divide more apparent than in the NH House, where the old school Republicans are in constant conflict with the libertea crowd, led by former Speaker Bill O’Brien. They’ve been a constant and deliberate source of obstruction and delay during House voting sessions. For months the libertea crowd has been carping about how Speaker Shawn Jasper (a conservative Republican) is really a DINO (Democrat in name only) because he was shrewd enough to use Democrats to help him win the speakership. In spite of all the acrimony, somehow Jasper and O’Brien kissed and made up (don’t dwell on the graphics of that) and passed a thoroughly odious budget that reflects the desire of the libertea crowd to “take the state back.” All the way to 1776, it seems.

This weekend, the Republican Party is having the “First in the Nation Leadership Summit” at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua. Both declared candidates, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio will be present. Also expected are likely candidates Bobby Jindal, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, the Donald, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, and Lindsey Graham.  Other speakers include John Kasich, Joe Scarborough, Frank Lutz, Scott Brown, Fred Barnes, Betsy McCaughey and Kelly Ayotte.

This is a two-day event that is already sold out. They have a slick website, where one can look at the agenda, the speakers, and the various events, including a focus group with Luntz and a media panel that includes Drew Cline of the Union Leader. There was ever any doubt about the Union Leader’s loyalty to the GOP – but it’s nice to see it there in black and white. 

The NH Young Republicans will be having their somewhat controversial convention during this summit. It seems that all of a sudden, at the last minute, applications for 70 new dues paying members of the NH Young Republicans appeared, funded primarily by GOP operative David Chesley, who is going to be Rand Paul’s NH campaign director. This is all about influencing who will become the next chair of the organization.

The day after this Republican shindig is the Summit of Grassroots Activists by the 603 Alliance. It’s at the same venue, and includes at least one of the same speakers, former NY Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey. McCaughey was the lieutenant governor during George Pataki’s first term. He ditched her when he ran for his second term. There are only two female speakers listed at their event, both imported from out of state, McCaughey and Sharron Angle, failed US Senate candidate from Nevada.

From the 603 Alliance website, “A group of conservative activists joined together to create an organization---a movement---an alliance--- of like-minded constitutionalists and conservatives with the goal of impacting who wins the New Hampshire First in the Nation Primary.” That’s exactly how it is written and punctuated.

It’s the libertea crowd. The names of the Steering Committee are listed, but not much else. There’s a press release promising that this event is going to produce a loud bang, much like the shot heard round the world, on the day of their summit. The loud bang potential isn’t obvious from the website, which is dark, unattractive, and rife with florid rhetoric. Given how many Free Staters claim to be in the IT field, one would think they could have come up with something more appealing.

Their speaker list: Betsy McCaughey, Sharron Angle, Andrew Hemingway (former NH gubernatorial candidate), NH State Rep. Bill O’Brien, Aaron Day, who is Chair of the Republican Liberty Alliance and moved to NH as a member of the Free State Project. He’s also the Chairman of the Atlas Society, a group of folks who never grew out of their adolescent obsession with the fiction of Ayn Rand. NH State Rep. Dan Itse who fancies himself a constitutional expert, libertea blogger Mike Rogers, former NH GOP Chair Jack Kimball – businessman and UN conspiracy theorist, and Jason Sorens the founder of the Free State Project.

The Free State Project announced it was moving to NH in 2003, because NH was such a fine, liberty loving small state. They’ve given many reasons over the years, but all are variations on that tune. The tune was meant to distract, something the FSP is very skilled at. They talk about how peaceful and peace loving they are all the time, to distract us from the fact that they’re armed miscreants, coming to NH with the intention of taking over and dismantling our state government. They’ve told us for years that they aren’t political – when the opposite is so obvious. And yes, they told us they chose NH because it was so free. Horse hockey. They chose NH because of the primary. This is their big bid for influencing the primary process. This is the FSP coming out party.

It will be fascinating to see how the schism works this weekend, and how many of the GOP leadership summit speakers and participants hang around to be part of the 603 Alliance Summit. My money is on Rand Paul.

Published as an op-ed in the April 17 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

2013: A Year in NH GOP Shame

A brief overview of embarrassing commentary by NH GOP legislators. (Not intended to be comprehensive.)

January: 

Rep. William O’Brien, speaking at a “right to work” hearing:

“New Hampshire wages are artificially high, a symptom of stagnation.”

February: 

Rep. Donald LeBrun in a committee hearing (Health and Human Services) was quoted as saying: “Rather than spend money on people with disabilities we have another choice, Voluntary Euthanasia….”

h/t Tuck at Miscellany Blue

March: 

Rep. JR Hoell speaking on one of last session’s gazillion gun bills: “Maybe Democrats want a young mother to allow her children to be murdered as she runs under a table to hide instead of take a weapon from her purse and save her most precious loved ones?”

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

April:

Rep. Peter Hansen, posting on the House internal email system for legislators gave his opinion on what was missing from the debate on the stand your ground bill:  “Why children and vagina's of course.”

Rep. Romeo Danais used the House internal email system to compare feeding poor children to feeding wild animals – twice in the same day.

Rep. Al Baldasaro testifying before a committee hearing on a bill to phase out lead sinkers and jigs – because they’re killing the  loon population:

“If you take a look at other areas, uh, what’s going on around the country under Agenda 21, this isn’t get – the nose is already under the tent. This now is pushing the foot under the tent, to slowly get the fishermen off the lake. That’s what this is gonna do.”

Rep. Stella Tremblay gave her opinion on the Boston Marathon bombings on Glenn Beck’s website: “Just as you said would happen. Top Down, Bottom UP. The Boston Marathon was a Black Ops “terrorist” attack.”

Miscellany Blue

susan the bruce

May:

Rep. Jane Cormier, in a lengthy floor speech on SB11, a bill to allow municipalities to work together on financing and building water and sewer projects: “The EPA now considers rainwater a pollutant.”

June:

Rep. William O’Brien gives a speech from the floor, describing the budget that was just passed as “his legacy.” 

He had also just voted against the budget.

July:

Senator Andy Sanborn:

Sanborn, R-Bedford, was the guest host of the afternoon radio show on WTPL-FM in Concord Tuesday afternoon. During one segment he was talking to former State Sen. Ray White, also a Bedford Republican, about the new national health care law. Sanborn has been vocal opponent of the law.

At one point Sanborn said the new law "is barreling down on us like a jet landing into San Francisco. It’s (laughter) it should make people really concerned."

After the program Sanborn didn't recall the remark, but after hearing the audio of the program said he apologizes for it.

"It was my mistake. If I offended anyone I am sorry," Sanborn said.

Two people were killed and 168 injured in a plane crash in San Francisco just 2 days before Sanborn was yucking it up on air.

August: 

Rep. William O’Brien, at an Americans for Prosperity rally against the ACA:

And what is Obamacare? It is a law as destructive to personal and individual liberty as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that allowed slave owners to come to New Hampshire and seize African Americans and use the federal courts to take them back to slave states.

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

September:

Rep. Al Baldasaro retweeted something posted by his friends at Americans for Prosperity: “RT if you want to be exempt from #Obamacare like members of Congress! Yes!”  Sadly for Al, that proved to be a falsehood.

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

October:

Former Rep. Pete Silva  tripped over his racism during a particularly ugly special election battle. Silva was trying to regain his former House seat. He said that on the day of the primary election "I thought I was in New Delhi." His opponent is Latha Mangipudi, who is of Indian descent. His further comment about how Indian voters would be "coming out of the woodwork" to vote for Mangipudi seemed, to many, to carry the unappealing aroma of racism.

November:

Representatives Laurie Sanborn and Neal Kurk on the subject of expanding Medicaid:

Is it fair that eligibility for expanded Medicaid is based on income only and not assets, so that a 50-year old who lives on a yacht and has a very low income qualifies for free health insurance?

December:

Rep. JR Hoell was the gift that kept on giving in December. First, from an interview he did on wingnut radio:

“We’re not here to threaten anybody. We’re here standing on our soapbox as opposed to standing with our ammo box in hand to make a point politically. The message needs to get out that Scott Brown does not represent New Hampshire.

If things continue the way they are, there may be a day or a time where firearms and ammo are necessary. It happened in the Revolutionary War. I’d like to think we’re not there yet, but as things continue to unravel, that may be the next step.

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

This lead to more tantrums:

“Regardless of where Brown lives, he BROKE his oath of office by stating he wanted to ban certain semi-automatic rifles.

Brown does not support NH values!

(BTW, he has taken an oath to up hold the constitution on at least 3 separate occasions: Swearing in as a National Guard member, MA legislature and US Senate)”

And finally, this little gem from the NSFW files.

The wheels are coming  off the GOP clown car, kids. Stay tuned, and Happy New Year to all of my readers.


PS: Thank you Tuck. Not only could I not do this without you, it would be so much less fun. 

Cry Me a River

In a recent Union Leader opinion piece, former NH GOP Chair Fergus Cullen bemoaned the takeover of his party by  “Tea Partiers, Ron Paul apostles, and fringe figures.” These are the same people that won in 2010, victories Cullen cheered about. The NH GOP threw open the doors to the Tea Partiers, Ron Paul apostles, Free Staters, John Birchers, and wearers of tinfoil berets. They boasted about their great electoral accomplishment. They elected Jack Kimball, a bombastic, bellicose tea tyrant, to be their state party chair.

And soon it all fell apart. That great GOP majority proved to be comprised of inept bumblers and outright lunatics. There was the guy who had to resign for saying that people with disabilities should be sent to Siberia to freeze to death. There were the guys who wrote the bill to include relevant quotes from the Magna Carta in each new piece of NH legislation. There was the Free Stater who wanted to put warning signs up at the NH border. Let us not forget Speaker O’Brien. The list of his follies is long, and includes closing the House gallery to members of the public, and refusing to allow a reporter from a newspaper that had been critical of him into a press conference. This is but a thumbnail sketch of the results of that great majority that the NH GOP crowed about. When Fergus cries his bitter tears about how his party has been taken over by the lunatic fringe, he’d better cry me an entire river. The NH GOP not only allowed this to happen, they welcomed these people. Only now, when they have no chance of winning much of anything in the next election does Fergus get out the crying towel.

The old guard NHGOP must have been absolutely petrified when O’Brien announced he was considering a run against Ann Kuster in the second Congressional District. Poor Obie was not able to raise much money, possibly because he has all of the charm and charisma of a garden slug. He decided (or the party higher ups did) that he’d better drop out. This week, former State Senator Gary Lambert announced he’d be running for that seat. Lambert doesn’t have much name recognition outside of the Nashua area, and his brand of conservatism isn’t likely to be popular in the more liberal of NH’s congressional districts. He’s opposed to marriage equality and does not believe that women are autonomous, equal human beings. At his campaign launch, he said, “Republican ideas work. We’ve proven how they work in New Hampshire.” We have indeed seen how those Republican ideas work in NH. Every day we see our crumbling infrastructure, the death of our manufacturing base, and our high, high property taxes.

In the first Congressional District, Frank Guinta is making noises about a rematch against Carol Shea-Porter. Frank, a Tea Partier who rode the red wave in 2010 would be facing the same questions and ridicule he was ignoring when he was voted out in 2012. He ran on a huff of indignation over Shea-Porters alleged overuse of the House franking system. Frank was outraged about franking! He practically accused Shea-Porter of electioneering. Then, once in office, he became the number one Congressional abuser of the franking privilege, spending double what Shea-Porter had spent during her term.

Then there’s the matter of Frank’s magic bank account. He loaned his first campaign $355,000 that he didn’t have, according to his original financial disclosure forms. He later amended the forms, saying he forgot about a bank account with $250,000 in it. Well, of course he did. Who among us hasn’t forgotten about a quarter of a million dollars? Why it could happen to anyone.  

The Committee for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) put Guinta on their 2011 “most corrupt members of Congress” list, which is something of an accomplishment for a freshman legislator. Frank doesn’t just have baggage - he has shipping containers. This time he’ll not only be running against Carol, he’ll be running against himself.

If Guinta doesn’t run, State Representative Pamela Tucker is considering running for that Congressional seat. Tucker was former Speaker O’Brien’s deputy Speaker, and one of his trusted lieutenants. That would be her biggest claim to fame in a district where she has no name recognition.

Rep. George Lambert, a NH native allied with the Free State Project, is exploring a run for governor. He’s definitely part of the “Ron Paul apostle, fringe figure” types that Fergus Cullen is now bemoaning. So far, he’s the only one. He’s another “candidate” with zero name recognition. Where are the candidates with even an iota of gravitas or name recognition? I saw a discussion online among Republicans where Craig Benson’s name was being bandied about as a potential gubernatorial candidate. That’s a subterranean level of desperation right there.

The NH GOP is in disarray, and they have no one but themselves to blame. They not only invited these folks to join them, they allowed them to take over.  To paraphrase the old maxim: “If you lie down with clowns, you will rise with rubber noses.”


© sbruce 2013  
published as a bi-weekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Legislators, Guns, and Money

Another deadline has been met and another state budget has been passed. The final session of the year for the NH House was jam packed with theater, debate, obstructionism, and oratory that ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The job of the House was to vote on whether or not to adopt the reports from the various Committees of Conference (CoC).

All three budgets were passed, HB 1 – the main budget, HB 2 – the budget trailer, and SB 25 – the capital budget. All passed by wide margins, with a modicum of posturing. The best comic relief of the day came when former Speaker William O’Brien made a floor speech claiming that the budget they’d just passed was the result of his hard work – his legacy. It was, he said, “An O’Brien budget.” The former speaker refused a committee assignment this year. Apparently after being the king, he was reluctant to mix it up with the peasants on a committee. That means he did nothing all year but vote on session days, and hold press conferences. The hardest work he did all year was during the final session when he asked for 2 roll call votes. After his delusional speech, someone moved that his remarks be put in the permanent record. It was roundly voted down. It is fascinating to watch someone walk through the world unencumbered by fact or logic; yet so egotistical as to think that running for Congress should be his next move.

HB 242, a bill dealing with child safety restraints was hotly contested. The Liberty crowd hated this one. How dare anyone tell them how to take care of their children? Nothing says freedumb like dead kids in a car accident.

HB 573, the watered down compromise version of the original therapeutic cannabis bill passed on a division vote of 284-66. The bill is a disappointment to all advocates for medical marijuana, but the hope is that this will be a step toward better policy.

HB 595, the voter ID bill compromise also passed, after a lot of posturing from the Liberty crowd. In the compromise, current NH student ID is deemed an acceptable form of identification for voting purposes. The (unfunded) mandate for cameras and scanners is kicked down the road till 2015, just in time to gum up the first in the nation primary. One legislator told me all about the need to safeguard our elections, because of all the voter fraud he’s seen. None of it ever seemed to be caught on camera, video, or reported to the police. I asked him if he really believed that our elections are highjacked by busloads of people from Massachusetts, he said yes. I asked how (if that were the case) he explains the Senate? Or why the Democrats don’t run everything always, he had no answer.

Everything passed. It was a long, hot day in the House, and toward the end, tempers were a little frayed over the continual calls for roll call votes. Many seemed to think that 14 of ‘em were plenty.

We have a budget, but it doesn’t increase revenue. A story in yesterday’s Concord Monitor warns that the widening of I-93 will run out of funding by 2015. There’s no money to continue. There’s no money to fix our roads and bridges. There are still 3 bridges around the state that can’t be used at all. Some funds have been restored to our university system and our community colleges, but NH still needs to make the decision to invest in the future, instead of clinging to the failed policies of the past.

On June 18, the traveling bus tour of Mayors Against Illegal Guns came to Concord. Local gun safety advocates procured a permit to have a peaceful memorial vigil on the State House Plaza. The names of the 6000+ who have been killed by guns since the Sandy Hook school massacre were going to be read throughout the day. This event horrified the NH NRA group, who sent out emails to inflame their followers. A Facebook event page was created, and a number of the Libertea faction of the state legislature signed on as being quite excited to stage a counter-protest to this peaceful memorial vigil. Disgraced former NHGOP chair Jack Kimball was hard at work ginning up the basest of the GOP base. They were successful.

When I arrived at the event at 5 pm, the peaceful, unarmed citizens who were conducting a solemn memorial were surrounded by about 60 armed thugs who were screaming anti-Semitic slurs, racist slurs, anti-woman slurs, and bellowing into a bullhorn. They were threatening people. One bellicose thug threatened me, because I had a camera and I was taking crowd shots. He later tore a sign out of another woman’s hands and went for her camera. Another decided that the best way to illustrate responsible gun ownership was to get right up in the face of John Cantin, as he spoke about his daughter’s murder in 2009. Daniel Musso heckled and harassed John Cantin. He was eventually led off by the police, fought with them, and was tased.

WMUR presented a very slanted story that night on the news, a story that has come to be accepted as the truth. I was there at the same time the WMUR reporter was. He did an interview with Jack Kimball, he spoke to some of the gun thugs, but he never spoke to anyone outside of the gun nut crowd. The story was edited into being one lone heckler who was brutalized by the police. What they don’t tell you is what the police walked into – an armed gang of bullies spoiling for a fight. It was very nearly a riot. The only NH traditional media that reported the truth was the Concord Monitor. Everyone else has worked hard to turn the story into ANYTHING other than a gang of out of control, armed bullies attacking unarmed NH citizens.

After seeing all this, I can only conclude that these angry men oppose background checks because they would be unable pass them. Also: this is why we call them “gun nuts.” The guy who threatened me was furious at the idea of his picture being taken. I also conclude (as usual) that the default setting for most NH media is GOP. The slanted WMUR report created a lie that was then picked up by media all over the world. NH residents deserve to get the real story, not coverage that’s been sanitized for GOP protection.

  

“Republicans want to deregulate everything except voting and vaginas.” susanthe, via Twitter.

© 2013 sbruce  Published as a biweekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.