Amid Blizzard Fury, a Twitter Flurry of Sniping

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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