If you remember, Orly had a bit of an interchange (actually, got a FOAD letter) from New Hampshire House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt. She had a madz at him, and GG posted about it here.
viewtopic.php?f=88&t=6843&p=308741#p308741 To refresh your memory, he was the 27-year-old young conservative on the rise ....
Now, not so much -- in fact, he has just resigned from the NH House. And while I'm sure Orly will be delighted if she actually hears about it and perhaps even claim credit, he seems to have done it to himself.
Bettencourt has recently been in the news for calling a Roman Catholic bishop a "pedophile pimp." Under some fire, Bettencourt offered a non-apology apology, and a few from the extreme edge of the NH GOP called for sanctions, but it looked like that was it. And then, today, in an article on Daily Kos,
michaeledwards on DailyKos wrote:
Yesterday, Mr. Bettencourt's resignation announcement was published in our local paper. The report indicated Mr. Bettencourt's recent graduation from UNH Law school, impending marriage and the opportunity to work at the New Hampshire Legal Rights Foundation were the reasons he was leaving his leadership position at the end of the legislative session.
Republican Committee Members went public with praise for the young leader as "principled", with a "bright future", feting his part in "turning the economy around" and reducing the state's "bloated budget". Why, he was a Republican Wunderkind.
Except ... Not Quite!.
It seems that Bettencourt had been a few credits shy of the graduation requirements at UNH Law School, and asked fellow Republican legislator/lawyer Brandon Giuda if he could do an internship with him so that he could complete his credits. Everything was agreed, but Bettencourt only showed up once, worked a couple of hours, and never came back.
Giuda didn't think much more about it until last week when Bettencourt posted a picture of himself in cap and gown on his Facebook page, thanking those who helped him graduate. Giuda with became suspicious, and contacted UNH Law School. They wouldn't tell him anything, but they did contact Bettencourt. And then ...
Quote:
Bettencourt contacted Giuda, and asked for help making the issue disappear. But, that wasn't going to happen. The two men met with the NH House Speaker, Bill O'Brien. In the meeting. In that meeting, Bettencourt provided the full monty of his wrongdoings. He had fabricated 11 weeks worth of activities associated with his internship ~ including court appearances and client meetings. These extensive notes and documents were submitted to the law school. Mr. Guida apparently demanded Bettencourt's resignation and full confession. All agreed he could go away.
So Bettencourt was going to resign, and then be set up with a cushy job at the New Hampshire Legal Rights Foundation (run by O'Brien), and the resignation announcement above was released.
Except there was no confession ... it was just "resigning leadership at the end of the legislative session," moving on for new opportunities, yadda yadda yadda. No falling on the sword, no fessing up. Giuda was having none of it, and gave Bettencourt a deadline -- by noon today, he would make a full public confession, or Giuda would release all of the details of Bettencourt's fakery.
And that was it. Today at noon, Bettencourt publicly confessed, and resigned effective immediately.
More at the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/2 ... er-ResignsThis is only tangentially related to the New Hampshire Ballot Challenge, a re-appearance of one of the minor characters from that drama. But while Bettencourt is a candidate for the "Republicans Behaving Badly" thread, it's also good to see that fellow Republican Giuda did the right thing and didn't let him get away with it.
I'm sure Orly will take full credit.