Truth or dare

You want to know why folks have a problem with pols? Because even when you want to believe them, it’s very often not possible.

Take the case of Manch Rep Ross Berry, the GOPer who came up with the so-called “I-93” congressional redistricting map, clumping together towns and cities along I-93 in the southern half of the state, which basically moves nearly a half-million Granite Staters in 73 towns and cities from one CD to the other.

And just to make things a little more interesting, the map just happens to move the state’s two current Dem congresspeeps, Annie Kuster in the 2nd CD and Chris Pappas in the 1st, into the very same district.

Quite a coincidence, no? Well, if you were to believe RB, that’s all it was. He insists he “did not factor in incumbents or candidates in building the districts.”

However, submitted for your consideration, here’s one itsy-bitsy question: If the two congresspeeps were both GOPers, would this map have lumped them together, too?

Exactly.

There’s nothing so powerful as truth

Well, well, well. So it turns out after all these years that William Loeb, the publisher who managed to keep generations of NH pols and citizens under his ethically grimy thumb, happened to have one that was actually morally filthy.

Yes, as what-was-once-his-newspaper reported at the start of the month, the puerile publisher of the UL and Sunday News sexually abused his daughter and stepdaughter. Multiple times. They were 6 and 7 years old.

In other words, the puerile publisher was a perverted pedophile.

One thing that stands out about this is that it turns out that the criminal behavior was known for years after his death, but for reasons that are not entirely understandable, a whole cohort of folks who could have let the rest of us in on the secret a while back decided they needed to apply extremely strict journalistic standards to protect the memory of a man who, let’s be reminded, never once exhibited any sense that he ever considered following a journalistic standard when he was alive. In fact, it’s quite apparent that he never had any standards that a healthy, honest human being has.

Despite a lifetime of nastiness, anger, retribution and manipulation, the cohort decided to keep Loeb’s legacy propped up, no matter how shaky the ground it was on. Fortunately, the UL showed the fortitude to face up to the reality of its ancestor, even going so far as to erase the references to the puerile perverted publisher pedophile from its masthead.

Which raises a point about facing up to the past and learning from its mistakes (something perhaps the current ed commish and his fellow anti-history/reality fellow travelers could consider).

How about revisiting the PPPP’s lasting political legacy, which remains a yoke on the neck of the NH political process to this day — The Pledge?

It would be a historic day indeed if the pols wedded to the PPPP’s Pledge took even a minute to consider its origins. Might be a learning experience.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

Get out the popcorn: The guv is already fighting back at Corey Lewandowski and CL’s ex-prez benefactor, taking a preemptive shot at Wendy Long, the serial NY GOP candidate and CL/Trump’s pick to run in the GOP Senate primary. He called her a “carpetbagger from New York.” For her part, WL said the guv “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

SOS Dave Scanlan apparently hasn’t been paying enough attention to see where much of the world is headed, now that his Commission on Voter Confidence has come under fire, not for its mission but for its all-white membership, only one of whom is under 40 years old. It’s not exactly being seen as a vote of confidence for diversity.

Speaking of voter confidence, yes that was the real Bill O’Brien who was named to be legal counsel for the RNC’s “election integrity unit” in NH this year.

Wow, 1st CD GOP wannabe Timothy Baxter — not exactly a household name to begin with — sure got some unwanted PR after his campaign consultant, one Cliff Maloney Jr., was charged by the University of Pittsburgh Police Department with raping a “substantially impaired” and “unconscious” woman. CM told the cops he “thought we both had fun.”

It’s a little early, but let’s give a fond farewell to GOP Sen. Harold French of Canterbury, an F&J mainstay for these many years. He’s decided to call it quits after three terms.

If Roe v. Wade actually is overturned, Maggie Hassan will have a big opportunity thrown in her lap.

Taxpayers should thank Senate Prez Chuck Morse for running for Senate, since that’s the big reason he slashed down to $9m that overstuffed $35m parking garage plan for legislators. Until next session, natch.