This year’s model

Who woulda thunk that the Covid toll now might include the slam-dunk U.S. Senate career of one Christopher Thomas Sununu?

CTS, otherwise known hereabouts as the guv, sure seemed like he’d have not a problem in launching that D.C. career that not so long ago he insisted he never wanted.

After all, he was the guy who stepped up boldly in addressing the Covid craziness. Masks, school, restaurant and bar closings … surely you remember the list.

But that was all so 2020. Now it’s 2021, and that formerly gutsy guv — who seemingly each day is the subject of a national story about how Mitch McConnell is licking his chops over the thought of the guy grabbing Maggie Hassan’s Senate seat in ‘22 — is wearing a different mask.

And could the reason be that he’s afraid of the Freedom Caucus/Liberty Alliance/Free Staterdominated GOP — the one he’s the titular head of?

How else to explain how a guv who only last December — 2020, that is — after the death of House Speaker Dick Hinch from Covid, would lambaste the loudmouths in political office who weren’t wearing masks and were encouraging others not to too.

“It’s incredibly, incredibly irresponsible,” he said, “to make some bizarre political point, it’s horribly irresponsible, it really is. It has horrible consequences. That’s not speculation, that’s not supposition, that’s fact.”

He added: “Use your heads and don’t act like a bunch of children, frankly.”

And, just as a reminder, when the guv imposed the indoor mask requirement in 2020, he said he wanted to do it to take the heat off business owners and others. The mask buck stopped with him.

But now, it’s 2021 and we have This Year’s Model of Christopher Thomas Sununu, aka, the guv, and in 2021, masks aren’t all that important, at least not important enough for the state to be involved. So we get mealy-mouthed statements from said guv, such as:

“We know community transmissions may be different. Certain schools may have mask orders and some may not. I would say (to the public), make sure your voice is heard. You have to listen to your parents, listen to your teachers, get all the community input you can.”

In other words, if you’re looking for leadership, you’re on your own folks.

Opinion vs. fact

Here’s an interesting opinion: First-term GOP rep and a wannabe congressman Timothy Baxter of Seabrook has found a way to get some free publicity: call for a special session of the NH Legis., so they can vote to outlaw mask requirements in schools.

Baxter — who is not a doctor and does not play one on TV — issued this medical/scientific opinion to back up his “Let me be clear: The data shows us that kids do not need to wear masks. Period. It’s time for rational thought leaders to go on offense and stop pandering to the virtue signaling, anti-science crowd. Any parent can choose to have their kid wear a mask. We are just saying, ‘Don’t force the kids to wear one.’ It should be the choice of parents and not any bureaucrat.”

Here’s an interesting fact: As the Delta variant tightened its grip on the US, from July 31 to Aug. 6, an average of 216 U.S. children with Covid were being hospitalized every day. On a single day last week, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, in Little Rock, had 19 hospitalized children with Covid; Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, in St. Petersburg, Fla., had 15; and Children’s Mercy Kansas City, in Missouri, had 12. All had multiple children in the intensive care unit. And, FYI, it’s getting worse.

MAGA mania

The narrative appears to be gaining in certain quarters that people who, to rational eyes, are grasping at a crazed delusion that the ex-prez actually won last Nov., are just regular ol’ US citizens who really wouldn’t want to harm a fly, 1/6 insurrection or not.

Really? Let’s take the case of Ryder Winegar, a 34-year-old Amherst, NH, resident and self-described stay-at-home dad, who apparently had become so besotted with Donnie Trump that in the wake of DT’s loss, he actually couldn’t tell reality from fantasy.

And th’other day he pleaded guilty to six charges of threatening members of Congress and another of transmitting interstate communications.

Prosecutors said Winegar — who actually identified himself and left his telephone number — left voicemails that were racist, anti- Semitic and homophobic, and he allegedly told the unidentified lawmakers to get behind then-President Trump or he and others would hang them.

Oh, and BTW, he also threatened a Dem member of the New Hampshire House.

And, also BTW, when Capitol Police searched his home, they found weapons that included a 9mm handgun, a scoped Ruger rifle, a semiautomatic AR-15 with light armor-piercing bullets and an armored vest.

He’ll be sentenced on 12/1.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

It might not mean much to folks outside Laconia, but the state’s decision to issue an RFP to sell the former State School property “as is,” without regard for the work of the legislatively enacted Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission ain’t exactly winning any friends in them there parts.

Will Frank Edelblut, the ed commish, be seated on Betsy DeVos’ right or left when she appears for a “National Campaign for Parental School Choice” event in Concord on 8/31?

For what it’s worth, the guv must be feeling kinda good about his chances if he runs for US Senate in 2022. Why else would he think that making Social Security and Medicare reform a centerpiece of his campaign is a winner?

Speaking of the guv and the Senate, add the name of RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to the list of GOPers holding a torch for Sununu. “I would love for him to run,” she told WMUR.