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I continue to watch the effort to remove Jack Kimball as chair with bemused but detached interest. Today I am perplexed as to why Ayotte, Bass, Guinta and Bragdon allowed themselves to be dragged into this mess. According to John DiStaso in the UL, Bill O'Brien hosted a conference call in which those "electeds" agreed to ask for Kimball's resignation. O'Brien then went trotting off to demand siad resignation. Kimball agreed to think about it, but over the weekend received enough support from other Republicans that he decideed to stand and fight.
if Ayotte, Bass, Guinta and Bragdon are concerned about the impact of the current Republican mess on their party and their colective futures, isn't it O'Brien they should be trying to remove, not Kimball? When you look at all the bad press that the NHGOP has received since January 1, only a small amount can be laid at Kimball's feet. It is Bill O'Brien who has turned the legislature into a circus, and it is Bill O'Brien who has been so over the top and off the wall, and who has either precipitated, or encouraged, the most fringe of the fringe elements of the Republicans in the legislature to do nutty things.
Don't get me wrong. If the Republican establishment wants to pillory Kimball, and thereby cause a mass exodus of the self styled "liberty" caucus from the Republican Party, that certainly benefits the NHDP, which works for me. But I just find it rather odd that Ayotte et al are picking on the wrong person.
It wasn't Kimball who introduced a rule to allow guns at the State House, or who authorized the unconstitutional effort to expel Mike Brunelle, or who started those whacky redress and constitutional review committees, or who picked a fight with the Attorney General, or who passed a budget leading to the layoffs of hundreds of NH citizens, or who called hardworking stte employees "thugs", or who is wasting taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit claiming he can turn the the visitors gallery into a wi fi lounge. No, that was O'Brien, and it is because of O'Brien that so many people became so energized and worked so hard to elect Democrats int he two special elections for rep. And it is the Republican House caucus that is responsible for raising money and putting together the organization to elect Rep. reps. And, while
it was not O'Brien who called the bishop a "pedophile pimp", he is responsible for the anything goes atmosphere on the house side.
According to Pindell, O'Brien is miffed because Kimball refused to send out the press release that O'Brien wanted sent when the story about O'Brien's son voting in Maine, then NH, and then Maine broke. What did he expect? O'Brien has been so out there with his comments about college students voting liberal, and the rest of that nonsense intended to suppress the student vote, that there isn't much that can be said. The Republicans have made such an issue over student voting that it would have made them look even worse if they tried to defend the elder O'Brien against the hypocrisy charges.
I don't know who the anti-Kimball people want to put into office. Rumor has it that the bylaws will make vice chair Wayne Macdonald chair, who is a state employee, which causes all sorts of interesting problems. What do you do when the Speaker of the House demands that you issue a press release that you do not agree with - but you work for the state? What I do know is that the Republicans seem to be throwing the wrong guy under the bus, with the encouragement of the guy who they should be throwing under the bus. But like I said, it works for me - because as God made little green apples, every day that Bill O'Brien remains as speaker makes it more and more likely that the Democrats will make significant gains in the legislature in 012.
