If the RNC can draft a resolution to relabel the Democratic Party as the 'Democrat Socialist Party', then I say that we should draft a resolution to have the Republicans change their mascot. An elephant? That's SO 1800's.
No, the NEW mascot for the GOP MUST be the lemming. Because I've never seen a group of like-minded folks so determined to follow each other off a cliff.
More after the jump.
Today comes the news that a young, attractive (starbursts!), up-and-comer in the Republican Party is quitting her job to seek higher office, completely reneging on promises she made, and ditching her duty to the people of her state, all for the sake of personal gain.
Wait. What? Wasilla? Where's that? No, I'm not talking about THAT quitter. The quitter I speak of is New Hampshire's own Kelly Ayotte, our now former Attorney General, who apparently thinks she's US Senate material:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/...
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte is resigning to explore a campaign for U.S. Senate.
Ayotte submitted her letter of resignation to Gov. John Lynch, effective Friday, July 17.
Ayotte is that rare thing in modern day New Hampshire politics: a holdover from the Benson administration, who isn't universally loathed. Moreover, she had her tenure as AG renewed by our marginally Democratic governor, John Lynch, just last April.
Of course, with hindsight being 20/20, it appears that her appointment wasn't completely consequence-free:
http://www.unionleader.com/...
Lynch spokesman Colin Manning said the Democratic governor had expected Republican Ayotte to serve out her full term. At the time of her reappointment, she had told Lynch that was her intention, Manning said.
...
"There could be a degree of awkwardness if there's a promise like that," said Tom Rath, a Concord lawyer and former Republican National Committee member.
And speaking of 'awkward', I think it's probably worth looking back at Ayotte's accomplishments as AG, to see what sort of representation we could expect from her in the US Senate. Certainly, it could be said that she was ALWAYS focused on the people of New Hampshire, and the court cases that had a DIRECT effect on them:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/...
On Thursday, the New Hampshire attorney general joined her counterparts in nine other states in asking the California Supreme Court to delay its ruling legalizing same-sex marriages in that state. Ayotte and the others said they had an interest in the case because they would have to determine whether to recognize the marriages of gay couples who got hitched in California.
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Two days later, Ayotte changed her mind and withdrew from the case. Her office issued a terse statement and made no one available to discuss the decision.
...
Turns out, state legislators had already thought through this dilemma, addressing it in New Hampshire's five-month-old civil unions law. If a gay couple has the opportunity to get married elsewhere, their marriage will be treated as a civil union by the state of New Hampshire. The same goes for couples granted civil unions elsewhere. The language is clear and unambiguous.
As if that wasn't enough to prove that she knows the law like the back of someone else's hand:
http://www.unionleader.com/...
Balancing the budgets for the year that ends Tuesday, and for the coming fiscal year, hangs on the idea of taking $110 million in surplus from the medical malpractice insurance fund run by the Joint Underwriting Association.
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Justice Kathleen McGuire threw the Attorney General's Office off the case. She said the JUA is not a state agency, so the AG can't represent it while representing the Insurance Department, which is part of the lawsuit.
This comes after Ayotte's assurances to the Governor's office that the fund's surplus could be used by the state. Assurances which look to be completely unfounded in reality at this point.
I could go on. We could discuss her support for a NH parental notification law (in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood) that DIDN'T factor in the health of the mother, and was ultimately repealed in 2007. Or her "expert opinion" on New Hampshire's proposed medical marijuana legislation, that came straight out of Reefer Madness.
Suffice to say, she leaves a trail of questionable "accomplishments" in her wake, as she quits her office for political gain. Her timing is lousy, her motivations are unmistakably greedy, and her strategy is every bit as confusing as that of Alaska's governor, whose Red Naughty Monkey heels she now finds herself walking in.