Big Booze, Big Bucks - Corruption in NH

On January 13, the Union Leader published an excellent story by Kevin Landrigan called Bootleg Booze: A NH to NY Pipeline. We learn that people from other states are coming to NH to make large purchases of cheap liquor. This isn't buying 10 cases of wine for a wedding. These are bulk purchases amounting to thousands of dollars....but only purchases up to $9,995 dollars. A cash purchase of over $10,000 requires filling out an IRS form. These modern day bootleggers don't want any records that might call into question where all that cash came from in the first place, so they split the cash payment between several purchasers, or pay half in cash and half on a credit card.  The act of splitting up a transaction to avoid the federal requirements is known as "structuring." NH Liquor Commissioner Joseph Mollica almost seems to be bragging about how cleverly NH skirts the law by looking the other way. 

Fast forward a month. NHPR gives us the latest on this same story. Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky calls for an investigation into the Liquor Commission after spending some time at a store where the bootlegging activity is taking place. He sent the governor a letter detailing his concerns. Particularly troubling is the finding that employees make large cash deposits, putting them at great risk. 

One might think that a warning of  potentially illegal and dangerous activities would be met with gratitude - especially before anything hit the proverbial fan - but one would be wrong. Instead of the thanks of a grateful state government, Councilor Volinsky was greeted with hostility and accusations. 

The very same paper that published Kevin Landrigan's story, printed this editorial, mocking Councilor Volinsky for reporting the same findings their own paper had printed weeks before. The very same paper printed this story featuring Jeanne Forrester, chair of the NH Republican Party, calling for an investigation into Councilor Volinsky, a month after publishing Kevin Landrigan's story. She called Volinsky's allegations "bizarre." It's amazing how a story can go from zero to "bizarre" in a month. It's almost as if there were some kind of partisan ideology afoot here. Oh, say it ain't so! 

Governor Chris Sununu said there were questions to be answered by both sides. Bothsiderism is very popular with today's Republicans. Our governor is a big Trump supporter. You'll remember that Trump said there were "good people on both sides" of the white supremacist march on Charlottesville last year. 

There was this from the NH Republican Party Chair:

Drop the disguise? He was dressed in jeans, a sweater, and a baseball cap on a weekend - in front of security cameras. He wasn't wearing a disguise like this guy:

It seems likely there were hundreds of visitors to that same store over that weekend who wearing a "disguise" just like Councilor Volinksky's. 

Oh, and speaking of "investigations conducted above board," there was one conducted by the Republican Speaker of the NH House in 2012:

“We need significantly more oversight to determine if this is a rogue agency,” said Republican Bill O’Brien in 2012, when he was Speaker of the New Hampshire House. He launched a bipartisan Special House Committee that year to conduct a wide-ranging review of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission.

The committee, which met twelve times between September and November 2012, was charged with investigating, among other areas, the Liquor Commission’s alleged use a government-hired lobbyist, how $100,000 worth of wine went missing in Portsmouth, how the agency handled government records, and - relevant to Volinsky’s current allegations - how the agency managed “bootlegging,” an industry term for large, all-cash transactions, usually involving out-of-state buyers."

Would Forrester and Sununu consider a committee launched by the GOP Speaker of the NH House, the patron saint of the liberty caucus, "above board?" Read more at  the NHPR story, which includes a link to the committee report.

It is dazzling that reporting on potentially illegal, seemingly corrupt, and dangerous practices can be blamed on the messenger. It wasn't problematic when it was O'Brien's committee...but suddenly, the very same story is causing the majority party to clutch their pearls in horror. 

For more on the story from Councilor Volinsky, listen to him on this podcast of The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen. Full disclosure: I was the producer of the show, so I was sitting right there as Andru talked about how thousands of dollars were counted right there on the counter in front of the windows. 

There are a lot of questions that need answering. Our state liquor store employees need to be protected. Our liquor commissioner has some explaining to do - and so do Jeanne Forrester and Chris Sununu. Their knee jerk reaction to Councilor Volinsky's findings is reprehensible. 

The Valley News calls for an investigation in this editorial. Not so the Union Leader. They suggest in this peculiar editorial that by not ignoring potentially illegal and corrupt activities, Andru is trying to give NH an INCOME TAX. That's right. They want him (and all of us) to turn a blind eye so that NH can keep on raking in the big booze bucks. 

There must be an investigation - an independent investigation. The money trail is going to be fascinating. 

Frank's Franking 2016

Step into the wayback machine, kids. We're going to travel all the way back to 2010. You may remember that Frank Guinta made a lot of noise about the alleged abuses of the House franking system by Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter. From Guinta's Blog:

 There is a thin line between maintaining a rapport with one’s constituents and electioneering. These pamphlets violate the idea of a “Congressional Update,” and show an abuse of a representative’s franking privileges. This is not the first time either, that Carol Shea-Porter has been singled out in the past as well for exploiting tax dollars for personal gain. 

Yes, Frank was quite incensed. While he was on the campaign trail, that is. Once he landed in Congress, he became the number one franking abuser.  

Lets Be Frank About Frank's Franking:

The Bakersfield Californian had a story in their Sunday edition about how much members of Congress spend on franking privileges:

* Also among individual House members, Rep. Frank C. Guinta, R-N.H., spent the most on franked mail in 2011: $164,650.

And in 2016?  From Roll Call  

On average, members running for re-election in non-safe districts spent $172 per day on mail franking. That’s far more than the $63 per day that members in safe districts have spent.

Three of the top four spenders on mail between January 2015 and March 2016 are running in some of the most vulnerable districts in the country: Republican Reps. Rod Blum in Iowa's 1st District, Frank C. Guinta in the New Hampshire 1st and Will Hurd in the Texas 23rd.

Jay Ruais, chief of staff for Guinta, said the congressman is “committed to openness and transparency, including communicating our efforts on behalf of Granite Staters, important at a time when many feel alienated from their federal government. As a result of our correspondence, constituents have offered ideas for legislation that Rep. Guinta introduced in Congress, and a few have even been signed into law.”

Yeah, Frank is a real paragon of transparency. From How Do You Spell Apology: 

On October 27, 2014, WMUR televised a debate between Guinta and Shea-Porter. I was there. When Shea-Porter asked about the money, Guinta said he’d been cleared by the FEC, in Dec. 2010, before he was even sworn in, and he had been exonerated. He accused Carol of lying about his record, and huffily announced, “The people of NH ought to know the truth.”  

He's right about that. The people of NH ought to know the truth. It's just that Frank won't ever tell it. I'll give the Union Leader the last word:

Union Leader Editorial on Frank Guinta

Two Tales of Grafton

Residents of Grafton, NH had their deliberative budget session on Saturday the 7th, in preparation for their annual town meeting on March 10.


As most readers know, Grafton is home to a number of members of the Free State Project, the band of armed miscreants moving to NH with the stated intent of taking over the NH government, dismantling it, and threatening secession. Grafton was ground zero - the town that the FSP intended to take over and turn into a model community at the beginning of their invasion. It hasn't gone well. Free Staters (then and now) don't seem able to grasp that not everyone shares their vision of a glibertarian utopia - and that many of those who don't share their vision were here before the FSP arrived to liberate them. 

I found two stories covering the Grafton deliberative session. They couldn't be more different. I suggest you read them both and reach your own conclusions.

In the Union Leader, news correspondent John Koziol is desperate to portray the town moderator as a weepy woman. It's mentioned twice in his story, and once in the headline:

Effort to constrain Free State backfires, confusion brings Grafton moderator to verge of tears 

In the story, she goes from "weeping" to "seemingly weeping." Hmmm....sounds like weepful thinking on the part of the writer. 

Koziol casts Free Stater Brian Fellers as something of a budget watchdog; asking for each department to review the budget, and making a variety of motions to cut the budget. He never mentions  Fellers problem with impulse control. Last year he was found guilty of disorderly conduct after his arrest for disrupting the deliberative session.  

For an entirely different look at the Grafton deliberative session, we turn to the Valley News:

By the end of a 10 -hour deliberative session yesterday, no substantive changes had been made to the 36 articles on the warrant that Grafton residents will vote on next month. 

In some ways, the meeting resembled last year’s — an 11-hour slog that, despite Free Staters’ efforts, resulted in no cuts to the operating budget. This year, attempts to slash the budget were once again rebuffed.

I'm just not seeing the "backfire" here. 

Many see Free Staters’ focus on procedure as a ploy to drag out the meetings so other residents will become frustrated and leave, allowing those remaining to vote in changes to their liking. 

The delay, disrupt, and obstruct tactics that the residents of Grafton see at their deliberative session are the same tactics that the Free Staters and their libertea allies use in the NH legislature. In Grafton it shows contempt and disrespect for the other residents of the town. In the NH House, it shows contempt and disrespect for their colleagues in the House - and even more contempt for the  people of New Hampshire. 

Two stories about the same event - yet they couldn't be more different. 

The Valley News appears to engage in a quaint, yet time honored practice known as "reporting."

The Union Leader has long served as a stenographer for the far right. In recent years they've embraced the Free State Project, and attempted to cast them in a flattering light whenever possible. This tear-stained story is just another of those attempts. 

From Unfit for Human Habitation to Safe Enough for Now: 24 hours in an election year

                                Peeling lead paint on the outside of a building in Manchester.

Mark Hayward had a story in the UL on Friday about a house that had been declared "unfit for human habitation. My commentary on that story. On Saturday he updated the story.

It seems that 405 Manchester St. went from being unfit for human habitation to "safe enough" for now:

The Health Department determined it was not unsanitary as long as tenants can flush their toilets with outside water.

The Fire Department reset the fire alarm system, which had not been working, LaFreniere said.

And his building inspector determined the other violations — such as doors that do not close and bedbugs — are quality of life issues and not reason to clear out the building, said Chief Building Inspector David Albin.


Having doors that work properly are a "quality of life" issue? Expecting to be free of an insect infestation is some sort of LUXURY? 

Water still remains shut off. Albin said he’s encouraged the tenants, who aren’t paying rent, to pool their money and work out a payment plan with Manchester Water Works.

Albin said he didn’t speak to tenants when he posted the building, but several called his office to ask about it. On Thursday, several tenants said they couldn’t get answers from the city after the sign went up.

“We have a responsibility to notify you that things aren’t right,” Albin said. “The city doesn’t have a responsibility to find you a place to live.”

Chief Building Inspector Albin didn't have the guts to knock on doors to compound the misery the folks who live in 405 were already experiencing, even though "we have a responsibility to notify you that things aren't right." Then he quickly absolves the City from any responsibility to help these people who are living in a situation that has been enabled by the City. 

Every 3 years, the City of Manchester inspects apartment buildings for compliance to the housing code. A certificate of occupancy is issued when the building passes inspection. Technically, apartments should not be rented out in buildings without CoCs. In reality, it happens all the time. It happened here at 405 Manchester St. 

The last CoC for 405 expired May 2, 2014. The process of acquiring that CoC began sometime in 2009. My notes begin in January 2010, when the owner, Paul Schaefer, was supposed to meet the building inspector and didn't show up. He was fined $50. This is not the kind of fine that strikes fear into the heart of a slumlord. It's a damn sight cheaper than doing the repairs, and with enough of those no-shows, a landlord can drag the process on for months, even years. Schaefer did exactly that. 

When the building was finally inspected, 95 code violations were found. Some were "quality of life" issues like switchplate covers on electrical outlets. Many related to replacing bathroom ceiling tiles, painting bathroom ceilings, and replacing bathroom floors. The reason for all of these bathroom repairs is obvious - leaky pipes. Fixing the leaks was never, ever mentioned. Just cosmetic repairs to conceal the ongoing leaks. How could a building deteriorate so much in 3 years? Leaky pipes and cosmetic repairs would be the first place to look. 

At 405 Manchester, he process of repairing code violations  took nearly 2 years. The CoC was issued on June 2, 2011. 

Another violation mentioned a bathroom wall with peeling paint that needed to be scraped and repainted. Was it lead paint? We don't know. The City doesn't test for lead paint unless there's a poisoning case. 

At the time the CoC program was initiated in Manchester, it was regarded as cutting edge. 

Not any more. 

It's evident that the regulations need to be rewritten, and then stringently enforced. It's also clear (after looking at numerous housing files) that a three year gap between inspections is too long for some landlords. The file on 405 Manchester is very thick. All of the files on the most dilapidated buildings are thick. They've been allowed to deteriorate over the decades. They were bought and sold as slums, by landlords who make a living exploiting low income tenants. Buildings that are well maintained do not have inspections that result in 95 code violations. 

There's something of a prevailing attitude that THOSE PEOPLE (meaning the low income tenants in buildings like 405 Manchester St) should feel lucky that they have a roof over their heads. Apparently the poor somehow forfeit any right to decent housing. 

And so the City decides that a building that was unfit for human habitation for a month is suddenly an okay place for people with children to be living. 

This is a decision that lacks conscience or humanity. It's the cowardly decision of a City that doesn't want to deal with the image problem that would be created by tossing women and children out on the street just before an election. 

Conservative Guru Urges Voters to Stay Home

On September 9, the day of the recent primary elections held in NH, Charlie Arlinghaus of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Failed Wingnut Policy Initiatives had an op-ed in the Union Leader. It was titled Don't Apologize for Not Voting, and contained some curious sentiments:

Most of us shouldn’t vote, and when we do we should skip some races. In most parts of the state, there was no earthly reason for Democrats or those leaning that way to bother. None of the big races have primaries, and why bother when you aren’t actually deciding anything?

Even when there are primaries, too many of us inclined to bother casting a ballot are low-information voters. If we had heard any real information, we might have had a preference, but none of the campaigns managed to get us much information. In all probability, we know little about each candidate except how he or she looks and that their opponents believe they have a secret plan to sell the state to the Soviet Union. So, on one level, you really shouldn’t vote. If you don’t actually know enough about two candidates to decide between them, you aren’t making an informed judgment. You should skip that race. Every year I skip races on the ballot when I don’t know enough about the candidates. That or I pick the name that I think sounds the most melodious because that’s the quality we need in a county treasurer.

"Most of us shouldn't vote." Now there's an interesting take on civic participation. As we dig deeper into this piece,  the inherent snobbery of the author begins to shine through. He tries to conceal it by writing about "us." Most of "us" are low information voters. Speak for yourself, Charlie. Many of "us" do the work of researching candidates. In fact, many of "us" are actively involved in our local and county governments. Charlie doesn't seem to want "us" to do that work. 

I thought all that money in politics meant we'd have MORE information? Is Arlinghaus saying that money really isn't speech? Or is he saying that all of that money has so corrupted the process that voting is now a useless act? 

I’ll probably vote in November to move things an inch or two one way or the other. But most of you reading this probably won’t.

That's the heart of this whole piece. Charlie, will vote to move things along - because he's someone who SHOULD vote. The rest of us? We should just stay home. 

Charlie Arlinghaus is treated as some sort of a guru by the mainstream NH media, even though he's been shilling the same economic policies that have been failing us since Saint Ronald Reagan was in the White House. Republicans do well when there's low voter turnout. Republicans rely on low information voters to march in party lockstep. Its no wonder we see Arlinghaus urging the "uninformed" (translation: non-Republican) voters to stay home. 

George Will, Rape Apologist

George Will is a conservative newspaper columnist. He's been writing a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post since 1974. His syndicated column runs in 475 newspapers. To put it another way, one in four daily newspapers in the United States features George Will. He has a huge platform. He's abused it repeatedly over the years, writing occasional racist, sexist, and homophobic commentary. Early this month, he took abusing his platform to a whole new level. 

On June 6, 2014, George Will's syndicated column was titled: Colleges Become the Victims of Progressivism.  It was a look at rape on college campuses. Will announced that "when they make victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges, victims proliferate." 

Where, oh where was George Will to tell my 16 year old self after being gang raped by Hell's Angels prospects, how coveted and privileged my new status was? If only I'd known - I might not have spent a big chunk of my life  trying to recover from the experience. If I'd only understood the PRIVILEGE  that had been conferred upon me, I might not have experienced so much fear, anger, and mistrust in intimate relationships. I would have been filled with pride at having been gifted with a lifetime of PTSD. 

He said this, too: Consider the supposed epidemic of campus rape, aka "sexual assault." 

Because the bitches are lying, amirite George Will? Because after all, it's such a privilege to be raped by one of you men. Every girl dreams of it. 

The Washington Post has said that Will's column was "well within the bounds of legitimate debate." Because rape,  dear readers, is apparently up for debate. Conservatives have been pretending for some time that the bitches are all lying. After all, we have ways of shutting that whole thing down, don't we? If you slutty McSlatterns weren't out at morning/noon/evening/night wearing whore clothes you wouldn't be getting raped, now would you? Well, except for when you're at home alone in bed, and an intruder comes in and beats and rapes you anyway - when you're 75 years old. I'm glad Florence Holway didn't have to hear about how privileged she was to have that experience. 

Whenever it happens, (and that's a big if, because we know you're all lying!) it's your own fault for being dressed slutty, going to his place, going out, going outside...breathing. 

It's also worth nothing that the editors on duty the day George Will turned in this masterpiece were all men. And that, friends, is a big fucking part of the problem.  It's men who think rape is up for debate. 

Two more things. The Union Leader - right here in NH - served up  George Will's column. One can only assume they share George Will's sentiments. I hope you will call them up and ask them. 

Here's the contact information for the managing editor:  John Toole  jtoole@unionleader.com. The phone # for the newsroom: (603) 668-4321 ext. 805  . The phone number for the publisher: Joe McQuaid, publisher, (603) 668-4321 ext. 559

Tell them to stop running Will's columns. 

That's what Tony Messenger did. Tony Messenger is the editor of the St. Louis Dispatch, a newspaper that USED to run George Will's column. On June 19, he announced that the paper was replacing George Will with conservative writer Michael Gerson:

The change has been under consideration for several months, but a column published June 5, in which Mr. Will suggested that sexual assault victims on college campuses enjoy a privileged status, made the decision easier. The column was offensive and inaccurate; we apologize for publishing it.

 Erik Wemple of WaPo interviewed Tony Messenger:

“Seeing the reaction and intensity of the hurt in some of social media and the reaction of women I know and talking to people who really were offended by the thought that sexual assault victims would seek some special victimhood — it helped seeing that response and it informed my opinion.”


Just like that, he fired George Will. Unlike rape, it wasn't up for debate.  

Fergus Cullen Grunts From his Cave

Republican men can't seem to speak about women without sounding as if they're grunting from inside Stone Age caves. 

From the You've Got to Be Shitting Me Files: Fergus Cullen in the Union Leader, writing about Senator Jeanne Shaheen:

It has been Shaheen’s ability to peel off Republican women that saved her in close races in the past. Some of these voters were political moderates who were uncomfortable with socially conservative Republican nominees. Others were attracted to Shaheen the political pioneer. Either way, the result was a string of conventional male opponents frustrated by the difficulty of having to run against Betty Crocker.

Betty Crocker? In 2014? 

Jeanne Shaheen served 2 terms in the NH State Senate. She served 3 terms as Governor of NH. She ran for the US Senate in 2002, but lost to successful phone jamming candidate John E. Sununu, Jr. Her consolation prize? Serving as the Director of the Harvard Institute of Politics. In 2008 she beat Jammin'John Jr. and became our first female US Senator. This is the record of a successful and accomplished woman. 

It seems the best the GOP can do is attempt to  tear down the record of a successful and accomplished woman by comparing her to Betty Crocker. In 2014?  For real? 

 Fergus wasn't smart enough to be stupid only once:

The first couple times, Betty Crocker’s cake mix is great. But after a while, it’s just another box on the shelf and you’re ready to try something else.

This is why women run from the Republican Party. 

Is Fergus such an utter dickhead that he really thinks that  belittling an accomplished US Senator in this manner will send all the "girls" running to Scott Brown? Scott Brown, the candidate who has secret meetings with kings and queens? The guy who can't seem to decide what state's shelf should host his box? The guy who doesn't know he was born in Maine? 

It's flabbergasting that in 2014, we're even hearing this kind of regressive 1950's dialogue from the GOP. In 1972  the Republicans had passing the ERA listed as a goal in their party platform. 

Women comprise a little over half of the population. If the NH Republican Party has any intention of attracting female voters, they might want to rethink the mastodon strategy. 



Or, as  Ta-Nehisi Coates put it: To Stop Being the Party of Stupid You Must Stop Being Stupid

Propagandist Complains about "Fractured Media Landscape"

When the Democrats took back control of the NH House and the Governor's seat, the Concord Monitor decided to add Grant Bosse to their roster of columnists, with the intent of making the paper more fair and balanced. Or something like that. Given the dearth of right wing voices in NH media, one can certainly understand the Monitor's desire to create such an opportunity. 

Grant Bosse works for the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a far right wing think tank. (They've stopped calling themselves non-partisan, at least.) He's the editor of their propaganda blog, NH Watchdog. He's also a frequent guest columnist at the Union Leader, the newspaper that serves as the stenographer for the NHGOP. Neither the UL nor the NH Watchdog feel compelled to match the Monitor's desire for fairness and balance. 

This is how we come to see Grant Bosse each week in the Sunday Monitor.  This week's offering was a combination of political predictions and media critique, with a side order of self congratulation. 

Our fractured media landscape makes it very easy for conservatives and liberals alike to seek out news and commentary from sources that share their beliefs. It’s hard to argue that one side has a monopoly on the echo chamber when Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow are both on the air. It’s important for voters to occasionally venture outside the bubble of political conformity, a service which I hope this column performs for Monitor readers.

Our fractured media landscape? This coming from a paid propagandist for the right? He's part of the cabal that broke the media! Then there's the attempt at creating a sort of equivalence between Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity. 

Sean Hannity barely finished high school and dropped out of college twice. His first weekly radio call in show was cancelled because of anti-gay comments he made. Like the time he told a lesbian caller, "I feel sorry for your child." Amusingly, the ACLU got his job back for him, but he chose not to return. In 2005, Jerry Falwell awarded Hannity an honorary degree from Liberty University. 

Rachel Maddow was a Rhodes Scholar.  She has a PhD from Oxford in politics. In 2010, Dr. Maddow was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Smith College. 

The most striking difference between them? Maddow's consistent use of provable facts. And - unlike Hannity,  Dr. Maddow has never been chased down Elm St. in Manchester by angry Ron Paul supporters. 

Back to Bosse:

Yet those who talk about politics for a living have little incentive to ever change their tune. We’ve seen from the Obamacare debacle how hard it is for elected officials to even acknowledge obvious mistakes, and they have to answer to voters. Why should cable news guests ever admit they were wrong? The good news is that Tuesday’s election results were mixed enough to reinforce almost any narrative.

I guess I missed Bosse taking Bush to task for lying to start a war that has nearly bankrupted the nation. I must have missed Bosse ever changing his own tune or admitting that he was wrong. Finally, I must have missed Bosse taking his own party to task...ever. 

Hubris. 

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

Stella's Swan Song Sung Amidst GOP Fauxtrage

Oh, say it ain't so:

Scoop: Controversial State Rep. Stella Tremblay, R-Auburn, has submitted a letter of resignation from the #nhhouse #nhpolitics
— James Pindell (WMUR) (@JamesPindell) June 20, 2013

Stella Tremblay is a NH State Representative, and a member of the NH Republican Party. She's claimed since the bombings of the Boston Marathon that it was a "false flag" operation, engineered by the US government - and that the people who were injured that day were all actors.

NH GOP Chair Jennifer (tax cheat) Horn is supposed to have read Stella the riot act to get her to shut up. She was denounced by her colleagues and the NH House made a very public resolution stating that they didn't believe any such thing. There was some NH media coverage. Mostly though, the NH GOP and their media lapdogs just wanted it to go away.

Stella didn't shut up, which was reported on by NH indy media sources, and by HuffPo. Her latest outburst was covered yesterday, by me, by HuffPo - and ignored by NH tradmed.

Suddenly, today, Stella is resigning. Here's where the irony comes in. At the same time Stella is resigning because of her comments about the bombings in Boston, the NH media is attempting to cover up the violent behavior of gun thugs at an anti-violence rally, by suggesting that they were inflamed by the reading of Tamerlain Tsarnev's name. The Union Leader and WMUR are flogging that story hard.

This was a near-riot incited in part by some New Hampshire legislators. JR Hoell was there - he's the taller man with the blue shirt, keeping his distance from the bully boys.

And after doing his bit to incite the angry mob, he slithered off. Gary Hopper, another inciter, was there briefly, and slunk off. 

Rep. John Burt was another of the legislators who helped incite this near riot. 

That's Rep. Burt in the red tie. To his credit, he didn't slink off. He stayed for most of it. As the mob shouted at ministers, bellowed anti-Semitic slurs, yelled racist comments, and bellowed about women, Rep. Burt and I discussed what was going on. I told him that it was ugly - that this was the equivalent of the Phelps clan picketing a military funeral, and that this mob was way out of control. He agreed with me. 

That this story of this gun thug melee is being reported so dishonestly should enrage every thinking person. And with that in mind, I hope you'll forgive me if I remain unimpressed by the faux outrage emanating from the Party of Stella Tremblay. 

as always, admiring h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue