Amid Blizzard Fury, a Twitter Flurry of Sniping
GOP mocks Hassan for promoting storm name and NHDP rips Tweet from local Republican.
High political winds were gusting before the nor'easter truly started whipping through New Hampshire on Feb. 8.
And Twitter was the digital wind tunnel.
NHPR posted a story about Gov. Maggie Hassan promoting the #NemoNH Twitter hash tag, a storm naming convention created by The Weather Channel. Hassan asked Patch and other media outlets to use the hash tag – though a few were already using it – to try to facilitate information about the storm.
Patrick Hynes appraised the "Nemo" usage in the NH Journal under this headline, "Hassan duped by silly winter storm naming fad."
And the latest Twitter-versy:
NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley issued a statement about "NHGOP Hypocrisy – Twitter Edition."
Buckley zeroed in on a Tweet from Greg Moore, a Manchester Republican who has previously worked for former New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O'Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and John Stephen, a former candidate and past commissioner of the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The Tweet in question, Buckley said, was this from @GregMooreNH: "Imagine if they tried in NH? Gov might get shot (MaDriveBan) #nhpolitics"
The tweet was in reference to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's ban related to the blizzard.
Said Buckley,
"I call on NH Republican Chair Jennifer Horn to join me in demanding an apology to Governor Hassan and her family from Greg Moore immediately. This is a direct quote, not a retweet of someone else's tweet or bad joke in any way, what Greg tweeted is outrageous and unacceptable."
Moore removed the tweet. He said he deleted it after weighing its content, shoe-horned in as messages are in a format limited to 140-characters. He also considered the major news events unfolding, including the man hunt out west for a former Los Angeles police officer.
Moore, in a phone interview with Patch shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, said he meant to draw a distinction between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, he said, "we get snow–we plow it, and we go on with our lives."
Though he used the #NHpolitics hash tag, he said he never made a statement about Hassan. He said he was focusing on Patrick. "It certainly wasn't directed at the governor (Hassan)."
Asked if he would apologize to Hassan, Moore said the only thing he would apologize for was if his Tweet had become a distraction for anyone in the state's Emergency Operation Center, a place, he notes from experience, is a vital, busy environment during major storms. The rest, he suggested, is political gamesmanship from the NHDP chairman.
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TAMMY
8:21 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
Please stop naming winter storms. Nobody cares about it and nobody really wants to remember this anyway. I don't even believe in naming Hurricanes. Just call it Hurricane #1 and year. Simple.
Sid King
10:57 am on Saturday, February 9, 2013
So, you don't like names. How about getting rid of your name and calling yourself female#245,497,665#1972? How about calling McDonald's fastfoodrestaurant#111#1943? How about calling your shoes shoe#154,623,490,576,321,442? and what else would you like renamed because you don't like names?
TAMMY
1:09 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
To Sid KIng: How about getting rid of your name and calling you asshole. Now lets see what you think about that.
JP
11:20 am on Friday, February 15, 2013
@Tammy - LOL!!!!
Liz Pearson
12:18 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
They need to grow up and focus on real issues!
Read Daly
3:16 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
Is @GregMooreNH old enough to have a Twitter account? He sounds rather childish and petty. Stay classy NH GOP.
C.W. O'Connor
7:16 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
Only a fool in todays environment would use a public forum to make comments about any politician being shot. Moore should be ashamed, even if unwilling to claim the full weight of his comment, for exposing himself as the village idiot.
Rick
7:29 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
Moore must listen all day to the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Huckabee, etc. I don't understand why the right thinks Huckabee is such an expert on everything. When he was Governor of Arkansas, he pardoned a convicted felow, who went on to shoot and kill four police officers.
Swamp Fox
7:53 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
And what does Bukley know about anything in particular.
CE SWEETON
8:04 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
I agree w/ Liz - we Adults need to stop being so Petty and set a Good Example for the next Generation...
nanci little
7:58 am on Sunday, February 10, 2013
Haven't we all learned by now that Repugs are not only clueless, but classless!?
Reality Geezer
9:34 am on Sunday, February 10, 2013
Republicans are now desperate for recognition. The cult needs to get back to common sense and logic, and a lot less hypocrisy..............
Robert B Butts
2:51 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
When it's snowing 5"/hr in a metropolitan area the only way to even have a chance at keeping up is to get non-essential vehicles off the road. The snowfall rate and total accumulations from this storm were anomalous enough to warrant the actions in Mass IMO. Here in rural NH, where we have a small fraction of the traffic, there is less need for special directives to limit traffic.