Has Susan Almy Lost Her Marbles (Elgin) ?

            After voting by an overwhelming margin (177-108) to not get involved in foreign affairs and ask Great Britain to give the Elgin Marbles back to Greece, the New Hampshire House will be asked to revisit the subject next week thanks to a motion Thursday morning–not by some back bencher intent on stirring up trouble, but by someone as well known as Ways and Means Chair Susan Almy.

            By House rules, any member on the prevailing side of an issue has until noon the day following a vote to file a reconsideration motion with the House clerk.  It usually happens when there’s been a close vote or there was some confusion on the House floor, virtually never when there’s such a clear cut margin as this one.

            With that in mind, Egore couldn’t help by wondering why Almy, with so much to do on her own committee, would go out of her way to file such a motion just 19 minutes prior to the noon deadline.  Donning his investigative reporter cape, Egore journeyed to the State House and is ready to reveal the details of this impeccably sourced effort (in many instances, names are withheld so sources won’t dry up in the future).  Rest assured, all sources quoted here are way beyond the pay grade of State Rep.

            Seems that the sponsor of the resolution (HCR27) Greek speaking (in fact, he barely speaks English) Tom Katsiantonis (henceforth known as Kman for brevity’s sake) was so furious with lack of Democratic support for his frivolous folly that he went whining to Speaker Terie Noelle’s office, demanding that something be done. 

            Manchester’s Greek community is up in arms, he told Norelli, a rather strange contention since when Kman assaulted the Speaker, hardly enough time had passed  for pitchforks to be assembled and Greeks to hit  Elm Street in a protest parade.

            Equally as strange was Kaman’s bellyaching that out of loyalty, Democrats should get behind.  Only a cursory study will reveal that Kman votes with Republicans more than any other Democrat in the House except Joel Winters (Kman has a 41 score with the ultraconservative HRA).

            Nonetheless, Norelli displayed a sympathetic ear.  Maybe she felt sorry for Kman since her failing voice prevented her from being in the chair for Kman’s disgraceful defeat.  That, it seems, was part of the problem.  Kman was furious with Deputy Speaker Linda Foster for failing to pound her gavel enough to keep order in the House when Salem Rep Tony DiFrusica made a joke about losing one’s marbles (kind of like the joke in our headline here).  Hey, the gavel would have come apart if Foster had used it hard enough to stop the mirth.  Even worse, Foster even joined in the laughter, Kman bellowed at Norelli.  True, true, true.  What normal human being could avoid laughing at such a good, albeit obvious line?

            So to the surprise of even her fellow Democratic leaders, who knew that the NH legislature has better things to do than become foreign policy agents and that these marbles aren’t the only antiquities stolen by northern European white men, Norelli promised to try to do something, not for something as important as people fighting and dyeing around the world, but for poor Greeks trying to get their marbles back.

            Since 63 Democrats had voted with the majority not to compel Britain to return Greece’s lost marbles, Norelli had many people to coerce into filing the motion.  Of the 100 Democrats who voted with Kman (Republicans were 114-8 against Kman’s folly), many were committee chairs who are usually forced into voting on the side of a committee recommendation.

            What’s so amazing about this is that the committee had unanimously recommended for the bill, leading one Democrat leader to comment, “Now I know we shouldn’t have put all the stupid people on the same committee.”  

            Since last month’s  resignation of Chair Michael Rollo to assume a paying Senate job (should that be allowed?), State and Federal is now chaired by Manchester’s Pat Garrity who tried to tell the House that his committee by rules had to vote for this bill.  Yes, this would be the same Pat Garrity who broke someone’s leg in a barroom brawl last year, and No, Pat, your committee doesn’t have to vote yes on such frivolous resolutions, it merely by rules has to hear them and quietly say that while the idea is a good one, it’s not the place of the NH House to get involved in individual foreign relations disputes.

            It seems that Almy, yes the same Almy who has spent years trying to foist an income or capital gains tax on the people of New Hampshire, was one of only three committee chairs to do the honorable thing and vote against Kman’s folly.

            Having failed to coerce lowly back benchers to file for reconsideration and with time running out, Norelli’s minions felt compelled to pull rank and demand that Almy file the reconsideration motion.  (Was her chairmanship threatened?  Egore has been unable to verify that rumor).

            Did Almy do this willingly? 

            Here Egore can reveal sources.  House Clerk Karen Wadsworth (a much higher pay grade than State Rep) won’t admit it publicly but she revealed that No, Susan Almy did not want to move for reconsideration, that she was clearly doing it under duress.  Coercion is probably the best word.

            Thus we have Speaker Norelli, at a time when the State is running a deficit big enough to require serious attention, succumbing to a petulant rage from a crazed Rep (Kman had actually threatened to beat up one of the Reps speaking against his bill earlier in the day) and coercing one of her (formerly) respected chair into doing what she didn’t want to do.

            House rules require reconsideration votes to come up before other business, so we can expect this to be resolved shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday.  One can only hope that some Rep has the nerve to demand of Almy whether she really didn’t want to do this or whether she has in fact lost her marbles? 

            As Ricky used to say to Lucy, “You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do” Susan.

            Kman too.

            Norelli too.