Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

So, who’s reporting it? Only John DiStaso: This week, Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones denied GOP motions to dismiss the Democrats’ civil suit. The judge rejected the GOP’s arguments that the Democrats’ suit was barred by the statute of limitations on Nov. 5, 2002, three years after the date of phone-jam operation. Mangones noted favorably that Democrats had argued that “critical information regarding the potential involvement of national political figures, and other information, came to light” in June 2004. Tomorrow, Mangones is scheduled to hear the Democrats’ motion to dismiss a Republican counter-claim alleging the Democrats’ suit is part of a ploy orchestrated from the national level to manipulate the court system and media for political gain.

Yes, you read that right. NH Republicans claim that their behavior should face no legal reprimand–because Democrats nationally made a stink about it. What a great argument–I’m sure it will later get applied to the latest NH Republican telephone hijinks.

In related news, NH Republican Senator Charlie Bass admitted his top policy director Tad Furtado had been trolling liberal blogs from US Government computers in defiance of federal law prohiting use of taxpayer funds for politicking. Using aliases like “IndyNH”, Furtado posed as a Democrat who felt Bass was unbeatable and basically a good guy. He urged others to give up on Bass’s opponent and direct their resources to other elections.

Funny that Charlie Bass’s policy director, after eight years of working for Charlie Bass, didn’t think that the NH GOP had a policy forbidding deceptive campaign tactics…

Maybe Tad Furtado just forgot to sign the famous NH Republican post-phone-jamming ethics pledge forbidding any activity that would “corrupt or degrade the political process.”