We’ve had some really trashy executive councils in the past, not too long ago. Aside from that gerrymandered, unwinnable seat occupied by Karen Liot Hill (KLH), the other 4 seats have been occupied by some real pieces of work, like Deb “liberty and justice for SOME” Pignatelli (in Wheeler’s seat), the PappASS (predecessor to Ted Gatsas), and Cryans (in Kenney’s seat).
We’ve also had some of their accomplices (members that pretend to be Republicans) in Janet Stevens’s seat. Not just Janet Stevens (who voted for Gordon-Darby and Judge Will), but her seat was previously occupied by the Damn Emperor before his 8-year Granite State Reign of Terror. When he became governor, Prescott took his seat, joining Comrade/Councilor Andru Volinsky in wanting to raise the tolls.
Right now is a good time to pause for something Wheeler once pointed out to me on a phone call: the governor can veto items. It’s just like bills, but unlike products of the legislature, there is none of that 2/3 business following an executive council veto. The item is dead, which is important for obvious reasons, as the “Executive Council from Hell” is about to be sworn in next month.
The Damn Emperor vetoed that toll raise in 2017 that Volinsky, Prescott and the PappASS wanted. Her Excellency Kelly Ayotte can use that tool for Planned Parenthood, to the relief of the Scaers and the Cornerstoners, and for commuter rail, to the relief of sound-minded people in HER CITY and the rest of the state.
Mayoral candidate Mike Soucy called commuter rail a boondoggle during his 2023 campaign, and it still is a boondoggle today, even though Donkness is probably busy salivating over Councilor Wheeler’s return to private citizenry and the incoming body.
Let’s get back to the incoming body, which will have 100% blue purity.
With 4 incoming knucklehead freshmen, KLH will become the senior member as a sophomore, but what does that mean? She will be the front person when it comes to addressing the media, kind of like when Wheeler was addressing the audience and the press on “St. A.’s Day” (9/29/21) to say that the meeting was canceled. The governor chairs the ordinary meetings of the body, but KLH will become the chair of hearings with public comment, such as those for judge nominees.
With our highest court in complete disarray and having a vacancy from the resignation of Gordon MacDonald, everyone already knows and expects some contentious nominations and the process that follows them. And don’t forget all the lower courts! I don’t know how many district court, superior court, and other non-federal court judges will turn 70 in the next 2 years, but some may even want to retire earlier for whatever reason.
My point is that there will be a lot of opportunities for spirited debate on the worthiness of the next several Ayotte appointees, and I mean debate by private citizens, because it goes without saying that all 4 new members will want activist judges. As for KLH, it stands to reason that she does also, though she has stuck with universally accepted talking points during campaign season. The conduct of everyone but Judge Will (particularly Donovan, Countway and Gould) is something that everyone across the political spectrum should want to get to the bottom of, albeit for different reasons.
Aside from oversight of the money trails >$10G into and out of the state treasury, judge appointments are what the incoming body is salivating over, especially Ms. Melanie Levesque, who has said the quiet parts of her agenda out loud. On the campaign trail and in multiple social media posts, she has confessed her plans to install “pro-Claremont” judges.
That brings me to a great book recommendation that I got from an October 18 article titled Luther and Thomas. I’m about 1/4 of the way through the Eric Metaxas biography of Martin Luther, but I already plowed through the new Ted Cruz book on Clarence Thomas.
To Melanie, I strongly recommend reading Going Further: The Incomparable Clarence Thomas because Ted Cruz does an excellent job respectfully explaining to us non-lawyers what an originalist judge is and the importance of obedience to the Constitution.
Our governor is a lawyer, but nobody in the incoming executive council is, so all 5 members would do well to read the book. All of our courts, both federal and state (which the executive council is a gatekeeper to), need fewer Ketanjis and more Clarences, and there will be no decent executive councilors available to play the Marsha Blackburn and ask nominees what a woman is!
Who wants to draw a Patriot Post or AF Branco picture of all 5 members of the next executive council seated at their chamber’s table, opening early Christmas presents that are 5 copies of the Ted Cruz book? The pictures should also include them opening a greeting card that says, “Merry Christmas from Governor Ayotte; please report to work having read the book.”
