NH House Republicans: An Endless Conga Line of Bad Behavior

 

         Republican legislators outside Whittemore Hall on Veto Day. Masks are required on campus. 

The Republicans of the NH state legislature have provided us with a lot of embarrassing behavior in recent weeks. 

Late in August, Representative Robert Forsythe of Boscowen was arrested for assaulting a pregnant woman. The first instinct of House leadership? No - it was not to ask him to resign. It was to cover for him and protect him. 

https://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2020/08/dick-hinch-nh-house-minority-weasel.html

The governor wasn't interested in protecting Forsythe, and called for his resignation. 

https://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2020/08/forsythe-resigns-hinch-sings-new-tune.html

A week later, another Republican state rep posted on social media that seeing a Black Lives Matter sign on a lawn was permission to burn and loot the house. 

https://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2020/09/nh-state-rep-advocates-burning-and.html

What happened this time? Nothing. The story was an international embarrassment, but he was not asked to resign. House Minority Leader Dick Hinch protected Spillane. The governor protected Spillane. This man who has a history of offensive and criminal behavior was apparently deemed worthy of the protection of his party. 

This week, the House and Senate were both in session on September 16. Known as Veto Day, it was a chance for both bodies to overturn Governor Sununu's vetoes on 22 bills. Last year he vetoed 57 bills. This isn't governing. This is Sununu attempting to create a partisan wave that he can surf to DC on. 

Veto Day was held at the UNH Whittemore Center's hockey arena, a space sufficiently large enough for the 400 member House to meet while also physically distancing.  As you can see in the photo above, a coterie of Republican legislators stands outside the Whittemore Center, not wearing masks. 

The House Republicans were rambunctious. They had their marching orders - vote to sustain every veto. And if any of them were potentially swayed by the arguments in favor of humane legislation, GOP floor captain Al Baldasaro was madly waving his red hankie. (The House electronic voting system has 2 buttons, green for yea and red for nay.) Elderly frat boy Rep. Chris True dyed his hair red for the occasion.  

I took this screenshot while watching the session online. 

There was cheering, jeering, and booing. The freedumb section, where the Republicans who refuse to wear masks sit was well populated. One media outlet was brave enough to name (though they have no shame) them. The list of all 47 is at InDepthNH

Apparently it was also beer guzzlin' party time for the freedumb lovers. UNH security found a bunch of empties in the trash can near the libertea lads and lasses. Speaker Shurtleff was furious when he announced it near the end of the day. 

Ethan DeWitt of the Concord Monitor has a report on the events of the day, including the big old temper tantrum that Rep. Al Baldasaro had before storming out of the stadium. 

The sad truth? Republicans don't care. They know that they aren't going to be held accountable by anyone. They know the media will gloss over it. They know Hinch will cover for them. They know the state party won't say boo about it. They also know that our Trump loving governor won't do a damn thing - after all, they just voted in lockstep to sustain his vetoes. This kind of behavior doesn't just trickle down from the top (Trump) it's a veritable tsunami of repellent, undignified actions - with no fear of the consequences. 

Regular readers are weary of hearing me say that the default setting for ALL NH media is GOP. 

What does this look like? 

WMUR: 

New Hampshire's House speaker has apologized to University of New Hampshire leadership for the behavior of some legislators after this week's session.

SOME legislators?  We have the list. We know they were REPUBLICAN legislators. WMUR (aka WGOP) would never point that out. 

 NHPR

During Wednesday’s legislative session at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore Center, a handful of state representatives drank beer and did not wear masks outside of the center, despite the town of Durham’s mask mandate.

Again - we know who they are. But their political affiliation and their names are left out of the story. 

If those had been Democrats, their names and photos would be up on WMUR, who would also have sound trucks parked in front of each of their houses. If those had been Democrats, NHPR would say so. 

And of course the Union Leader - the NH GOP daily broadsheet also avoided naming names or mentioning party affiliation. 

NH Republicans are enabled by the media, by House leadership, by NH GOP leadership, and by Trump lovin' Governor Sununu. Don't expect any fallout from any of this. Expect more of the same, in an endless cycle. 

From the General Court Handbook:

In the absence of ethics rules and enforcement mechanisms, this is meaningless. The honor system has been thoroughly corrupted by the dishonorable. 

Leadership in the New Biennium

The NH legislature begins their new biennium this week. The GOP controls every branch of our state government, so we can be sure that some terrible legislation will be passed and none of it will actually do anything to improve our state’s economy, infrastructure, or do anything to plan for the future.

Now that there are no restraints, House Speaker Jasper has made some peculiar leadership choices. He named Al Baldasaro of Londonderry as Vice Chair of the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee.  Representative Baldasaro distinguished himself in August 2016 by braying on WRKO radio that Hillary Clinton should be shot for treason. Baldasaro has been saying stupid stuff in public for over a decade now. There was the time he testified at a committee hearing that the state of NH sells babies to gay couples for $10,000, or his nonsense about how a bill to stop the sale of lead fishing tackle  (it kills loons) was part of the UN plan for global domination. Rep. Baldasaro has the same level of impulse control that we see in our Twittertroll-in-Chief. There are many definitions of leader, from “inspires confidence in others” to  “horse placed in advance of the other horses of a team.”

Speaker Jasper named Rep. Yvonne Dean-Bailey of Northwood to be the Vice Chair of the Election Law Committee. Rep. Dean-Bailey is beginning her second term (it will be her first full term) in office. Landing a leadership position in the second term is very unusual, especially for someone who may not be old enough to drink legally. Most leadership positions are given to experienced legislators. Dean-Bailey was touted as a “fresh young voice” when she ran her remarkably well funded (by outside special interests) campaign in a special election in 2015. In this case, “fresh, young voice” means: “same old GOP talking points coming out of a young female mouth.” The NH GOP lost up and coming women Pam Tucker and Marilinda Garcia, and obviously intends to groom Dean-Bailey for bigger things.

Jasper appointed Rep. Donald LeBrun of Nashua to be the Vice Chair of the Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee. Representative LeBrun’s campaign website says nothing about health, human services, or elderly folks. His sole interest is in cutting taxes and spending. LeBrun has chosen interesting ways to attempt it. In 2011 he sponsored a bill that would have made drug testing mandatory for food stamp recipients. It would have cost the state at least $7 million dollars, while saving nothing, given that SNAP is a federal program. There isn’t any way that there could be $7 million in fraud in NH – a state with a population of only 1.3 million. Hardly a fiscally responsible decision, but LeBrun has it in for the poors.

His next foray into cutting spending was a bill to drug test TANF recipients. This time he was smart enough to put a “Pay to Pee” provision in, whereby the individuals would have to pay for their own testing. If they passed, they’d be reimbursed. I attended the hearing for this poorly written bill, and witnessed LeBrun getting a little fed up with being asked questions he couldn’t answer. The bill isn’t perfect, he kept  repeating, petulantly. When people who knew actual facts testified, LeBrun sat there shaking his head no at them.

But that isn’t even the worst. At a hearing in 2013, LeBrun was quoted as saying, “Rather than spending money on people with disabilities, we have another choice, voluntary euthanasia…”
LeBrun was not removed from the committee. He was not ousted from the House. It wasn’t a big story in the NH media, unlike the story of the 90 year old freshman legislator who was ousted a few years ago for telling a constituent that it was too bad we couldn’t send people with disabilities to Siberia to freeze to death. This time, the leadership and the media covered for LeBrun. And now, despite an absence of any visible humanity at all, he’s just been given a leadership position on a committee that deals with important issues relating to humans.

In addition to being a poor excuse for a human being, he’s also a clown. This year he filed a bill to deny public benefits to anyone who desecrates the US or the NH flag. This is his idea of a priority for our state.

This is a man Speaker Jasper considers worthy of a leadership position. It seems that Jasper has abandoned all pretense of rationality and has chosen to let his freak flag fly along with the rest of his party.

Speaking of leadership, Rep. Frank Sapareto of Derry has been made Vice Chair of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. In 2013, Sapareto was convicted of simple assault in a domestic violence case. Gun felon and former State Rep. Max Abramson was not allowed to remain on the committee when his felony came to light. Sapareto challenged Jasper for the Speakership, and Jasper admitted that he promised Sapareto the committee position if he ended his run and backed Jasper. So, not only is a convicted abuser serving as the Vice Chair of the House Criminal Justice Committee – he got the job as quid pro quo.

The House Child and Family Law Committee has been eliminated. Speaker Jasper claimed that the only people who wanted to be on the committee were people who have grievances with the system. At a time when DCYF is under investigation for child deaths, this is a remarkable decision.

The good news is that the work of this committee will be shipped off to the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee (under the leadership of a convicted domestic abuser) and the Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee – under the leadership of a man who thinks euthanizing people with disabilities is a reasonable cost saving plan.

Oh, what a biennium it’s shaping up to be. 

NOTE: The House voted on Wednesday not to eliminate the Child and Family Law Committee 

Published as an op-ed in the January 6 edition of the  Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Nipples and Nonsense

It’s the start of the new year, and that means that the legislature will be back in session! The fun has already begun, with some of our NH Republicans covering our state with glory in the national media.

You may have read that a couple of male legislators made boobs of themselves over the horrifying thought of being subjected to the view of a female nipple. It seems that State Representative Josh Moore was so incensed at the idea, that he told a female state rep that any woman who was putting her nipple on view deserved to have it stared at or grabbed. This is especially fun because Josh is Ted Cruz’s “faith based outreach” director in NH. (Be sure to ask Josh or Ted whose nipple Jesus would grab.) The other offender was Representative Al Baldasaro, who also made crude remarks, but stopped short of justifying assault.

This all came about because last summer some women staged a “free the nipple” topless protest at Hampton Beach. This apparently was too much for the Patriarchal Police, so
a trio of male legislators filed a bill (HB 1525) to define the circumstances that comprise indecent exposure and lewdness.  

NH has some serious problems. We have the 11^th worst infrastructure in the United States. Our roads, bridges, dams, and water systems are in serious need of repair. We need telecommunications infrastructure. Young people are leaving the state in droves, because there are no jobs and no affordable housing. NH invests less than any other state does in higher education, so our college students have a tremendous debt load. We’re unwilling to raise sufficient funds to run the state as if it were a going concern, so all state agencies are insufficiently funded and don’t run properly. Our property taxes are some of the highest in the nation, and prevent young people from buying houses, and force old people to sell theirs.

The response of our legislature to the very serious problems our state faces? Nipples. Nonsense.

There are 8 bills attempting to eliminate abortion. Republican  men may not know diddly about planning future, but one thing they do know is that women can’t be trusted with their own bodies. There are 11 gun bills. There’s a constitutional amendment to try to ensure college students can’t vote here.  There’s a bill to require TANF recipients to be drug tested, another to dictate where SNAP benefits can be spent, and a resolution to encourage the governor and executive council to open their meetings with a prayer. Yeah, that’ll help. The legislature opens every session with a prayer, then they go on to do the best they can to ensure that the state’s poverty rate continues to rise.

Some of the bills are very familiar. Our legislators are not deterred by bills that fail to pass for decades – they just keep filing. There’s the usual attempt at defining “domicile” in ways that are aimed at preventing voting as opposed to encouraging it, this time in the form of a proposed amendment to our state constitution. Another constitutional amendment would require a 3/5 vote in the House to override any veto. We’ve heard these before.

HB 1629 would disqualify members of foreign terrorist groups from receiving public assistance. Is there a box that folks check off (yes or no) to notify the state that they’re members of a terrorist organization? HB 1542 would require drug testing of people receiving TANF benefits. This is one of Representative Don Leeman’s favorite hobbyhorses, brought back again. Kansas spent $40,000 on drug testing TANF recipients and got 11 positive test results. Mississippi spent $5,290 and got 2 positive test results. In a state that can’t afford to fix bridges, this seems like a bizarre use of funds, but hey, those poor folks aren’t going to demonize themselves.

HB 1115 stipulates that NH residents would only be required to obey our own state and federal laws. The laws of other states wouldn’t apply to us. This bill is sponsored by Rep. Frank Edelblut, a Republican who wants to be our governor. HB 1128 would designate the second week of September as Patriot Week. Because legislating patriotism makes it happen!

House Majority Leader Jack Flanagan is the lead sponsor of HB 1668, a bill that would create a registry for people convicted of heroin related offenses, and require the registration of those offenders. NH offers very little in the way of treatment for addicts. The GOP is determined to eliminate the NH Health Protection Program, (aka expanded Medicaid) which enables 40,000 low wage NH workers to access health insurance that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Insurance that covers treatment for addiction. Offering young people a future might be more helpful, (affordable education, good jobs, home ownership) but we’re not about to do that – so the only thing left is trying to prosecute our way out of a heroin epidemic. That it hasn’t worked yet is not a consideration.

Coming to us from the small gummint crowd is HB 1596, a bill aimed at changing the paperwork requirements for marriage. Representatives Itse, Hoell, Hill, and Ingbretson do not believe that the state should license anything, so they want to go forward into the past to the way things used to be, with couples filing a certificate of intent to marry, and then a certificate of marriage, which gives interested parties the opportunity to object to the marriage. I’m not making that up. It’s in the text. The text also only refers to couples that are comprised of a bride and a groom. It’s nice to see the same guys who moan and wail about gummint interference working hard to interfere in the personal lives of NH residents. Bravo, libetea dudes!

You can check out all 812 potential bills filed thus far at www.gencourt.state.nh.us . On the right side of the page, you’ll see the section labeled “State Legislation Dashboard” where you can find all bills – the good, the bad, and the peculiar. Presidential primaries generate a lot of heat and noise, but what happens on the state level has the greatest impact on our lives. Make it your New Year’s resolution to pay more attention.

published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun on January 8, 2012

Tough Manly Men

My friend Tuck over at Miscellany Blue came across a conversation that some boys from the freedom and liberty crowd were having. One of the more notable aspects of the conversation is that they've been trying to stalk Tuck, and found an architect in Virginia with the same name - and you know what that means:



Yup. Tuck's the Highlander.

Despite a thorough mocking by Tuck, the discussion continues on, in some weird and unattractive directions.  It doesn't take much to get the boys all wound up about guns, and from guns to homophobia is just a step to the right.

As you can see, Rep. Burt has decided that Rep. Timothy Horrigan should go out shooting with him, and he links that to some of his buddies who begin to chime in:

After a brief detour the topic veers back to guns. (Apparently the Tuckanoia is on the back burner for now.)

Rep. Al Baldasaro opines: "Once Tim learns safety, than (sic) he fires a weapon, he may just toughen up and get rid of his wimpy talk."

Because firing guns is the very defining characteristic of manhood!  Tough, manly, gun totin' men don't engage in wimpy talk. By wimpy talk, I believe Baldasaro means any talk other than the kind of talk routinely engaged in by angry white conservative Republican men. Their talk seems to consist of guns, all the things they hate, and boobs. Not exactly the Algonquin Round Table. 

Then we have Representative Leon Rideout chiming in, with some homophobic attempts at jocularity about "Timmy or Tammy" needing to man up. Because Tough Manly Men make accusatory 'jokes' about men who don't fit their definition of "manly." Like guys who don't choose to wear a sidearm as a sort of modern day codpiece.

This is not the first time I've seen Rideout do the "Timmy/Tammy" thing on Facebook. It seems the 5th grade playground was so much fun for Leon Rideout that he chose to stay there forever.

Shooting a gun doesn't make you a man. Making comments that reek of homophobia about other men doesn't make you a man, either. It just makes you a jerk.