She said, they said
Wow,
that ended with a whimpering bang. On Feb. 5, ex-GOPer Jenn. Horn —
former NHGOP chair and a founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project —
said she called it quits from the group after the revelation that
another project co-founder, John Weaver, was accused of sending
unsolicited and sexually provocative messages to young men, as the NY
Times reported.
Sounds pretty logical. But it turns out it may not have been as simple as that.
After JH’s announcement, The Lincoln Project released a statement that gave a slightly (to put it mildly) different story.
Horn: Take this job and... ?The project says that,
apparently out of the blue, JH asked for “an immediate ‘signing bonus’
payment of $250,000 and a $40,000-per-month consulting contract.” It
also said that back in Dec., she had “demanded a board seat on the
Lincoln Project, a television show, a podcast hosting assignment and a
staff to manage these endeavors.”
Sounds
like a rock star or something. Added the project: “These demands were
unanimously rejected” and Horn’s resignation was accepted.
No kitten around
Just because John Hunt isn’t a cat lover, you don’t have to make him into the Cruella de Vil of the feline kingdom.
By now, the meow heard round the world — or at least social media — is likely familiar to you. An AP story about how Yoshi, one of two cats owned by Dem Rep. Anita Burroughs of Glen, wheeled her way into the picture during a hearing of the House Commerce Committee.
AB says Yoshi and her other kitty, Jack, have made appearances during Zoom sessions before with not a hiss from fellow legislators. But this time, apparently, the cat, taking up a big chunk of the screen, seemed to get under HCC committee chair John Burns’ skin. Or something. Which is why it gets a little confusing.
First, AB says she was told by another member that JH told her to tell AB “no animals in the room.”
Members of the House Commerce Committee during their Zoom session. That’s Yoshi, F-Glen, second row, left.
That, she said, was “going to be impossible” (no door to the room?), although she did say that she could “try to keep the cats off the screen.”
Well, considering JH’s actual request — “I simply asked the ranking Democrat: Do we really want to have cats parading in front of the legislator’s computer? Let alone stopping and getting petted so that someone may assume the cat is sitting in for the legislator?” – that was all he wanted. No cats – and let’s presume dogs, iguanas, birds, snakes, etc. — “parading” in front of computers.
But — and this is instructive info for anyone following the sausage-making going on at the State House — the message apparently got rearranged into no, never, nada, nyet “animals in the room.”
Which JH, the lovable GOPer from Rindge, never meant.
Better late than never
Well,
the second time was the charm for the NHGOP. You may recall that back
in Jan., the party tried to hold its annual meeting — virtually, despite
the desires of at least a few of its members — but it soon descended
into a four-hour Platonic ideal of chaos. And the main order of business
– electing a chair and vice chair – was scuttled.
So
the NHGOP powers-that-be decided to go analog. And, lo and behold,
after a week or so of secret balloting at various locations in NH, the
NHGOP does have its chair and vice chair.
Stepanek and Tucker: Same as it ever was.
That
would be Chair Steve Stepanek and Vice Chair Pam Tucker. Same as it
ever was, despite a second attempt by Nashua radio host Keith Hanson to
take the party’s reins.
And
if you were measuring NHGOP dissatisfaction with its party leaders, as
viewed in other states, you’re gonna have to look elsewhere, since SS
won by a 279-99 margin and PT won, 323-80. Which, considering how the
NHGOP performed in Nov., makes a lot of sense.
MAKING THE ROUNDS
For
those keeping score at home, so far 2 NHers have been arrested in
direct connection with the 1/6 Capitol insurrection/riot/looting, and
another 1 has been arrested for threatening to murder six members of
Congress.
OK, let’s see: The guv is saying that getting the schools to reopen is “the No. 1 issue.” But vaccinating teachers? Not so much.
To
no one’s surprise, House Speaker Sherm Packard is getting ready to
bring the fold back into an indoor session for 2/24-25. Wonder how
that’s gonna work out.
Who
wasn’t surprised that GOPer Rep. Al Baldasaro pulled out his disabled
veteran card to explain why he wasn’t wearing a mask when he chaired a
recent committee meeting? The only thing is, why didn’t he say this
before all those many times it was pointed out he wasn’t wearing a mask
in public?
That
faint drumbeat in the distance for Emmett Soldati in his bid to unseat
NHDEm Chair for Life(?) Ray Buckley hasn’t gotten very much louder, but
there are signs the ES challenge may be, at the very least, getting
under RB’s infamously thin skin.
