DiStaso's Disgraceful Error Revisited

Remember about a month ago when veteran Union Leader John DiStaso suggested that the real action for New Hampshire House Speaker would occur when Republicans met in their caucus to choose Bill O'Brien as their leader.  Remember how I was so shocked by such ignorance from a so-called respected reporter that I took him to task, noting that a Republican/Democrat coalition could defeat O'Brien or that even a Democrat could become Speaker.  Now that all indications are that not only DiStaso displayed ignorance with his projections but other main steam media types as well; now that Democrats will control at least 217 seats, maybe something in the 220 range, allow me to rerun my response to "reporter" DiStaso.

Thursday

Oct042012

Media Watch--DiStaso's Ignorance Is Stunning

Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 09:56AM

For such a veteran reporter as John DiStaso, the ignorance he displays in his Granite Status column in Thursday's Union Leader must be considered nothing less than stunning.

Always one to lap up slop fed to him by leaders of either political party, DiStaso displays total lack of government and the political situation--not to mention history--by asserting that when the New Hampshire meets on organization day December 5, it will "just a formality".

That may or may not be the case, but for a high paid reporter to say so with such certainty is absolutely mind boggling.

DiStaso then goes on the list O'Brien's supporters, mostly the usual suspects, as if he's being paid by the Speaker to do his bidding.

The reporter correctly reports that Republican will caucus on November 15 and Democrats on November 17 to choose their candidates for Speaker.  However, he asserts, with no factual basis, that the real action will take place when the Republican meet, assuming both O'Brien and challenger Lee Quandt of Exeter win their elections.

That statement assumes that Republicans will be in control, no sure thing as any astute observer of the scene should feel compelled to at least note.  Numbers cruncher William Tucker, admittedly a Democrat, yesterday placed the odds at 50/50 of Democrats taking control of the House.  My own work, as posted here yesterday, is virtually identical, and no one could accuse me of being a Democrat.

But let's say that Republican maintain control.  Off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen Republicans (likely to be elected) who will never vote for Bill O'Brien for Speaker.  That's just a start; I suspect the number is closer to three dozen.  Thus if Democrats win as few as 165 seats they will be able to throw all their support behind a candidate other than O'Brien and deny him the gavel.  You don't have to delve too deeply into history to find the last time that happened, 2004 when all Democrats and only a few Republicans elected Doug Scamman Speaker (of course, we'll never really know who voted for whom since it was by secret ballot).

It's a mere quibble to state that DiStaso most likely has the wrong name for "Paul" Silva as an O'Brien supporter.  I can only assume he means Peter Silva, the Republican leader who took over when D.J. Bettencourt left in disgrace.  Yes, that would be the same Peter Silva who earlier in the year, as a Rick Perry supporter, said he could never support Mitt Romney for President.

Peter, Paul, who's counting.  We all make mistakes (I certainly do here, but I try to correct them...just ask Josh McElveen...that's EE). 

DiStaso's big mistake, an unforgivable one at that, is his insistence that all will be decided when Republicans meet and the rest will be "just a formality".

Comments

[Silence Dogood]

So happy to see you made it to another term! Just wanted to add, that the funniest (for me) part of the DiStasio/Silva name mix up was the following day, when he "corrected" his error from "Paul Silva" to "Frank Silva". But what's in a name? That which we call a Majority Leader by any other name would be as dumb?

Moot point now. Peter/Paul/Frank lost his seat in Nashua ward 8 yesterday!

[Rep Steve Vaillancourt]

Not only did Peter/Paul/Frank lose, he lost big, by nearly 300 votes. Three Dem winners in Ward 8 had 2321, 2213, and 2121 votes. Silva had only 1827. Republicans were utterly wiped out in Nashua, holding on to only three of 27 seats! Clearly, GOP success there in 2010 was due to Kelly Ayotte's coattails and Not Silva's astuteness! Too bad His Vileness didn't suffer a similar fate!