Two Bases, One Blog

Kevin, if you're reading: (4.00 / 4)

Here's another couple things you got wrong:

Your snide comment:

It's worth noting that [Feingold] had no problem with the undemocratic process that led to new colleagues from Delaware, Colorado, New York and Illinois, all of them now members in good standing in the Senate Democratic caucus.

The Gregg appointment was announced Feb. 2nd. Russ Feingold announced his amendment a week earlier. You colud look it up: that would be what we used to call "reporting." Feingold was objecting VERY specifically to the the appointment process that got Democrats into the Senate. Your column owes your readership a correction.

Your assertion, from whole cloth:

Here's the bugaboo for Hodes, however: Shea-Porter can beat him in a Democratic primary if one were to come to pass.

Nobody here has made that claim. Some of us (including me) have speculated that she might have an edge in the general election, since she already has a base in the more conservative NH-01. But a Democratic primary, dominated by activists, with few independents and low turnout? Nobody here has been stupid enough to make any claim about an advantage for either.

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by: elwood @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 07:25:57 AM CST

I'm glad you hit both of those, (0.00 / 0)

because each one bothered me a lot, but each, if addressed in the post, would have diluted from the main point I was trying to make.

birch, finch, beech

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by: Dean Barker @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 07:52:34 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Oh, Kevin, call re-write again (0.00 / 0)

Many in the know think Lynch wouldn't oppose at least putting before the voters in 2010 an amendment to the state Constitution to find out if the public would rather the voters deal with these sudden openings in a special election.

Actually, anybody "in the know" has looked at the state constitution and the relevant law.

This is a simple statute, There is no constitutional amendment or ballot question needed to change it - as we have discussed here.

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by: elwood @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 09:05:16 AM CST

In fact the State Constitution cant in this case take away the authority of the Legislature (4.00 / 2)

In regards to appointments of interim Senators, the authority of the Governor and the Legislature is not set by the state constitution, but rather by the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

So in this apparently unique case, the only way to change the manner of interim appointment is through a legislative statutory change.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 09:41:03 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I'm still arguing that (4.00 / 2)

"the executive thereof" in New Hampshire consists of the Governor and the Executive Council, and therefore the EC must confirm any US Senate appointment. But I haven't had any bites.

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by: elwood @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 09:44:09 AM CST

[ Parent ]

It's an interesting thought. (0.00 / 0)

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 09:53:03 AM CST

[ Parent ]

oops--- hadnt fnished (4.00 / 1)

I wouldnt rule it out, but i think it's unlikely that anyone will file suit.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 09:54:26 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Especially since (0.00 / 0)

the remedy might be for the EC to go beyond the current requirements and confirm Newman, which it would probably do, and then fix the law. Lot of work for no change in result.

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by: elwood @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 10:01:29 AM CST

[ Parent ]

It would make for a good political novel (4.00 / 3)

50-50 Senate with the Veep deciding. NH Senator dies in a tragic maple sugaring accident. Control of the Senate - and therefore the Supreme Court, which lost a Justice in that same horrific episode of boiling sap - rests with the replacement.

3-2 Executive Council. The wooing begins. Hardnosed political fixers try to find out just what the EC district boundaries are. Voters can't help them.

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by: elwood @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 20:50:48 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Sequel: (4.00 / 1)

Newly appointed Senator, an independent (the compromise from the cliffhanger at the end of the first book), is temporarily installed President Pro Tem, as his predecessor had the job and the next two in line have identical seniority.

Remember the 40 gallons of sap in which the Senator and the Justice died?  Well the one gallon of syrup it produced is used to poison the President, the Vice President, and the Speaker at bipartisan breakfast meeting.  New Hampshire's new Senator becomes Acting President.

His first act as President is to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, by recess appointment, and his choice: an obscure former Executive Councilor from New Hampshire...

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by: This Was The Moment @ Mon Feb 09, 2009 at 00:42:17 AM CST

[ Parent ]

What do you mean "His"? (4.00 / 1)

The independent, a grey haired writer of mystery novels named "Jessica", becomes president, and after she appoints obscure e.c. member as supreme court justice, she solves the mystery of the poisoned sap.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Mon Feb 09, 2009 at 19:19:18 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I'll bite (0.00 / 0)

we have an Executive Council for a reason: to make sure the governor does right. It is not part of the legislative branch. It confirms cabinet appointments. The EC would be a guard against corruption (this is still topical, right?) by taking the absolute power of appointment out of the hands of a governor and would likely deter nepotism.

The downside is the reappointment of Ayotte as AG issue: what to do when the Gov and the EC are of different parties? That's more of a practical consideration than an institutional one, though, and there are political maneuvers to mitigate it. For example, the Governor has a statewide bully pulpit and can say an obstructionist EC is denying NH representation in the Senate, which depending on his popularity might be effective.

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 10:44:33 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Well, it depends (0.00 / 0)

which parties. If the Governor is a Democrat, and the EC is Republican, they do what they think is in their party's best interest. How long was that guy Flynn treating a state department as his personal fiefdom, for example?

If there ever comes the day when the EC is Democratic, and the Governor is Republican, they will give him his way on most issues, lest they appear "partisan" and "petty".

Sometimes it seems like we Dems act like something out of a pop psychology textbook, spending so much time being abused and accepting abuse when in the minority that we've internalized it, and act as though our principles are less than legitimate. This is despite the fact that the majority of Americans support Democratic principles.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 11:13:52 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I don't understand (4.00 / 1)

why he chose to tack on the story about the young man with mental illness who was beaten at the Sununu Center, at the very end of his fanciful political imaginings. That incident calls for a stand alone story with a big outraged headline.  

sanctimonious purist/professional lefty

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by: susanthe @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 09:16:25 AM CST

When is a public blog posting a "leak"? (4.00 / 6)

I can't get past calling a blog posting under Hodes' name as a "leak".  Landrigan. like Distaso and other MSM folks, just don't get this new media stuff.  They long for the world where they were the king makers, with politicans whispering in their ears, hoping their calculated gossip would be "leaked" into their weekly (or weakly) columns.

It's a new day boys.

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by: Stark Blue @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 12:03:39 PM CST

I let that one go, (0.00 / 0)

but yeah, that's par for the course with an article from him last week that called us "Blue New Hampshire."

Maybe he's not really on enough to know how the whole culture works?

birch, finch, beech

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by: Dean Barker @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 12:15:42 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Remember when President Obama leaked an op-ed to some newspapers last week? (4.00 / 1)

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by: This Was The Moment @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 13:07:51 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Instead of teaching students how to write clearly and (0.00 / 0)

communicate accurate information, journalism schools seem to have concentrated mainly on teaching the "proper" formatting of stories and how to frame the interpretation.
Also, instead of editing the reporters' product, editors have taken it upon themselves to assign topics to reporters.  It's this, I think, which accounts for much coverage being sort of behind the times.

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by: hannah @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 18:42:09 PM CST

Monica, Have You Ever Been To A Journalism School? (0.00 / 0)

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by: Andrew Sylvia @ Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 21:30:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Not in the sense of taking courses. I did, however, have close contact (4.00 / 1)

with journalism professors and their students for over 15 years and let myself be interviewed on a regular basis to give them practice in covering and reporting on public meetings.  That's how I got clued into the outlines they came prepared to fill in, their desire to have quotes from opposite sides of any issue (even if there was no opposition), and their insistence on extracting predictions about what's going to happen next, rather than actually reading the documents and handouts they were provided.  
It was a pattern of behavior that almost invited spin.

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by: hannah @ Mon Feb 09, 2009 at 09:17:28 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Thanks, Professors From Which School? (4.00 / 1)

I'm curious because that's not the impression I got while I was going to school.

Then again, I understand where you're coming from and I ask you not to point the blame where it belongs: the people who own the mass media that have turned the focus in journalism from quality to quantity.

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by: Andrew Sylvia @ Mon Feb 09, 2009 at 10:39:56 AM CST

[ Parent ]

University of Florida n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: hannah @ Mon Feb 09, 2009 at 17:55:35 PM CST

[ Parent ]