WTF??? New Hampshire's Bathroom Bill

CONCORD — As a push to expand anti-discrimination protections to transsexuals squeaked by in the House Wednesday, one Conway lawmaker wasn’t there to cast a vote that might have killed it.
Republicans Thursday said state Rep. Tom Buco’s lone vote could have finished the so-called “bathroom.

The bill was panned by critics, including Buco who voted against it a week earlier, as a “radical” distraction from pressing budget issues.
The Conway rep was the only Carroll County lawmaker who didn’t vote as the bill slid through House in a 188 to 187 re-vote Wednesday.
Buco Thursday said he was so disgusted with the four-hour circus, he bailed early to work on the state budget with an accountant and eat lunch.
“I just got sick of it,” he said. “That bill was garbage, it should have been in the waste basket when it first came up.”

“The Republicans tried to make us look like lunatics,” he added. Backers included the three other Carroll County Democrats, Bob Bridgham, Susan
Wiley and Ed Butler, who drafted it. The 10 Republican representatives
from the county opposed it. Wednesday’s re-vote was closely watched
around the region. It added transsexual protections to existing laws. But Republican critics feared it would allow male sex predators into women’s bathrooms. Buco first voted Wednesday to block the House from even
reconsidering its first vote. “There is nothing natural about it (transgender),”
he said. “It’s a psychiatric disturbance, we should not be (furthering) it.”
GOP party chair John Sununu said Democratic leadership strong-armed party dissidents until they had the votes wrapped up, leaving others free
to walk away from the hot-button issue. “They twisted the arms of naysayers
behind closed doors, and then said we don’t need any more votes,” he said.
“There were nine or 10 more walking around in the halls ready to vote.”
Had the bill failed a second time it would have been shelved. Now it’s headed to the Senate where its fate could be influenced by an open seat
sought by Democrat Willard “Bud” Martin and Republican Jeb Bradley. Bradley, of Wolfeboro, sounded like Buco as he vowed to reject it.
“It’s time to focus on getting people back to work and balancing our budget without new taxes rather than spending all this time debating whether we
should have co-ed bathrooms,” the Wolfeboro Republican told the Union Leader.

The Martin campaign would not reveal if Martin has a position. Democratic party executive director Mike Brunelle said Martin is still “listening to constituents,” and he blasted Bradley and Sununu for “Bushstyle”
politics.

“The people of New Hampshire are hurting by this economic mess brought on by Jeb Bradley and George Bush,” Brunelle said. Around the same
time Buco rejected the bill in the first House vote last week, he said
Democrats should focus more on the budget than social issues such as gay marriage. “When I saw this agenda I said, ‘What is this?’ This is not the
Democratic Party that I grew up with,” Buco told the Concord Monitor.
Butler could not be reached Thursday afternoon as lawmakers were busy on the House floor casting key budget votes, including on the capital gains
tax. Buco said regardless of his vote, the bill has a dim future. “The Senate doesn’t want to touch it,” he said. “Let’s get back to real business.” Bathroom talk took another turn as the GOP exposed a $72,000 renovation of a women’s public statehouse bathroom used by Democratic House
speaker Terrie Norelli and Senate president Sylvia Larsen.
GOP state Rep. Fran Wendleboe quipped that the restroom, decked out in marble and raised sinks, should become “unisex” under the transgender
bill.
“The extravagant renovation of the speaker and Senate president’s bathroom
seems like a gross misuse of public funds, especially at a time when the Democrats are claiming that we can’t cut spending and we must raise taxes,”
GOP communications director Ryan Williams.

Today's Conway paper is only available today for non-subscribers, which is why I included the entire article. The link below will take you to the PDF paper which also includes a front page story about Bud Martin-D who is running against Jeb Bradley-r for the recently vacated State Senate seat. Good god, we need help up here.

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/pdf/2009/4/10.pdf