What’s unfair is unfair

Irony can be invisible to some people, can’t it? A case in point is a revealing statement from Atkinson GOP rep Peter Torosian.

First, PT isn’t a very big fan of the guv’s paid family leave plan — and apparently has a very, shall we say, interesting view of people who work for a living. PT questionably calls the guv’s voluntary plan “another state entitlement,” adding: “Once we open the door, good luck getting rid of it. Once the employees get a taste of it, they won’t let go.” (Sounds like a dog with a bone, no?) Anyway, PT is particularly angry about the process that resulted in allowing the family leave plan to become law. You remember that process last year. It involved the budget and a bunch of controversial/questionable provisions shiftily inserted into its trailer bill.

PT harbors a grudge that family leave “never got a fair hearing.” The plan “wouldn’t stand as a separate bill,” he claims, because “80% of our caucus was against that bill.”

So here’s the irony part: The same shifty budget process included a provision that bans abortions after 24 weeks, including making doctors criminally liable for performing such an abortion, and mandates that all women undergo an invasive ultrasound before seeking an abortion. (You get it: reverse choice.)

And, BTW, PT is on the record for not only supporting that 24-week ban, but supports one after 20 weeks. So it’s easy to presume he’s got no prob with how the 24-week ban came into being.

Deep bench of fantasy?

As is their wont, Beltway pundits like to fill up their time, and write plenty of words, about things that involve pure speculation — and leave you scratching your head saying, “huh?” Th’other day, Perry Bacon Jr. of the WashPost was ruminating about what would happen if Joe Biden decides not to run for reelect in ’24. So after a convoluted discussion of the prospects of veep Kamala Harris, he took a really long sheet of paper and scribbled down some names of folks “who could be as strong as Biden” in a prez run because they’ve “won election in a purple or red state.”

In alphabetical order, they are: KY guv Andy Bashear, NJ senator Cory Booker, ex-MT guv Steve Bullock, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, OH senator Sherrod Brown, PA senator Bob Casey, NC guv Roy Cooper, NV senator Catherine Cortez Masto, NH senator Maggie Hassan, VA senator Tim Kaine, MN senator Amy Klobuchar, GA senator Raphael Warnock, MI guv Gretchen Whitmer and PA guv Tom Wolf.

Yes, NH’s own Maggie H. is on the list. Make of it what you will, but it makes ya wonder why he didn’t include Jeanne Shaheen. Maybe he was trying to save ink.

The nice-nice plan

Remember the time former Secretary of State for Life Bill Gardner was opposed in his bid for his 21st term as SOS back in 2018? He was challenged by Colin Van Ostern, who put up quite a fight, although eventually BG won, thanks to the support of GOP reps.

Well, his successor, Dave Scanlan, appears to be taking a page out of that playbook — with a twist.

The new SOS apparently senses that the current legislative makeup of libertarian/Free Stater GOPers may not be so friendly to a guy who’s a remnant of the past — a moderate GOPer. So, he’s got a backup plan: make nice-nice with Dems.

He took a big step in that direction with his recent appointment of former Dem state rep and Dem party treasurer Patricia Lovejoy of Stratham to senior deputy SOS. And promoting ex-firefighters union chief Dave Lang to be his chief of staff probably can’t hurt either.

Word games

You probably heard about the guv’s recent interview with the Wash Examiner, giving his spin on how he was “pretty close” to running for the US Senate, until he wasn’t, because he didn’t want to be a “roadblock for two years.” Sounds good — good enough to get him a shout out from the Dem prez himself.

If you haven’t read it, the guv gives quite a long explanation of his thought process and the feeling that GOPers weren’t planning to get anything “done” if they win the majority in 2022 in order to make life even more uncomfortable for the prez.

But amid the article’s hundreds of words about the guv, something is noticeably missing: internal polling. As in, it’s very likely the guv and his peeps just didn’t feel comfortable engaging in a Trumpier-than-thou primary battle.

Leap of logic

ICYMI, there’s a push this year to cut and then eliminate the state’s communication tax. Why? Well, according to the bill’s sponsor, Pembroke GOPer Nick White, the tax is just plain unfair.

The comms. tax “affects all residents, especially low-income,” says NW, basically pointing out how regressive it is because “it costs the same if you make $20,000 a year or $200,000 a year.”

Hmmm … sounds like another, bigger, more onerous tax, doesn’t it? You know — the property tax.

You be the judge

Here’s a quote that speaks volumes on ed secretary/guv wannabe Frank Edelblut’s feeling about his job, or at least his approach to his job:

“If you look at our student performance, what you will find is that my economically disadvantaged students perform 15 to 20 percentage points lower than my average student population. This is a program that is targeted to economically disadvantaged students.”

So is that what you’d call a plantation mentality or simple paternalism?

MAKING THE ROUNDS

Next time Mike Pompeo, ex-Trump secretary of state, visits NH he’ll be thinner and more media savvy. First, he’s shed 90 pounds over the last six months and has spent $30k on media training “to hone his skills amid speculation about a possible presidential run,” per Axios.

Speaking of that MP weight loss, the KC Star, his home state paper, scoffs at his claim that he lost the weight by eating less and exercising a half-hour a day. In an editorial, they spoke to experts who said “it’s just not likely” that he did it without surgery, drugs or other extreme measures. Just sayin’.

You can’t be blamed for getting the sense that the GOP US Senate primary has the makings of either a train wreck or one of those professional wrestling Texas death cage matches.