The House Redress of
Grievances Committee has been the subject of much
controversy of late, even though our actual hearings are poorly
attended. Several times, we have had to cancel "executive
sessions" where votes are taken, because we were unable to
gather a quorum. Kevin Landrigan of The Nashua Telegraphand posted a video commentary about
the committee on TheLobbyNH.com. (The video itself is a
freebie but the Lobby is a paid website, well worth the $99/year
fee.)
I don't necessarily agree with
everything Landrigan says here, but I agree with 98% of it, and
I know from past experience that he knows what he is talking
about. Speaker Bill O'Brien is in my opinion, not quite
"four-square" behind the committee. O'Brien made the creation of
a committee a cornerstone of his campaign for Speaker a year and
a half ago, and he still cites its creation as one of his
accomplishments. But once the committee was created (and once I
was appointed to it) he has done little or nothing to help us. I
would merely say he is "three-square" behind the committee. One
big problem O'Brien has with the committee is that his House
Counsel, Ed Mosca, became one of the villains of Petition #26: Mosca handled the
ex-spouse's side of Josh
Youssef's contentious divorce.
[July 30,
2012} Sometime in July 2012 (or maybe late June), Kevin
weighed in on a subject which is near and dear to the Redress
Committee's heart. We have had a few petitioners (most
notably Michael
Brewster) who have been convicted of something along the
way. They understandably want to be pardoned. Here
Kevin explains why we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for any
pardons as long as John Lynch is Governor. In eight years
Governor Lynch has never even seriously considered pardoning
anyone. New Hampshire, by the way, has a
somewhat unusual procedure for handling pardons: the
Executive Council has to approve the pardon, along with the
Governor.
[July 30,
2012} Sometime in July 2012 (or maybe late June), Kevin
weighed in on a subject which is near and dear to the Redress
Committee's heart. We have had a few petitioners (most
notably Michael
Brewster) who have been convicted of something along the
way. They understandably want to be pardoned. Here
Kevin explains why we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for any
pardons as long as John Lynch is Governor. In eight years
Governor Lynch has never even seriously considered pardoning
anyone. New Hampshire, by the way, has a
somewhat unusual procedure for handling pardons: the
Executive Council has to approve the pardon, along with the
Governor. 