Now that the main run of session is over, except for the vetoes, the State House of Representatives has finally made a decision on whether or not grounds exist for impeachment of the South Dakota Attorney General.
Except that decision was to tell the Governor to quit picking on them.
However, House Speaker Spencer Gosch, the Glenham Republican who’s presided over the months-long process of vetting the attorney general’s conduct related to a fatal crash in September 2020, said no decision has yet been made by the committee about any such recommendations.
And..
And Gosch said Thursday a cease and desist order will be issued in the coming days in an attempt to compel the Noem administration to stop making public statements and press releases related to Boever’s death and the attorney general.
So the biggest decision they’ve made is to try to squelch the Governor’s freedom of speech to pressure them to figure out what they’re doing?
When I asked yesterday if we will “know if there is sufficient evidence to move forward with impeachment before the parties select candidates?” I thought I was being facetious.
Apparently it might not have been an entirely flippant question.
The Boeing quote about clowns and monkeys comes to mind here.
The committee’s final report will include the line: “We used to be indecisive. But not we’re not so sure.”
*now
Well that’s one interpretation.
It’s pretty clear they are just gonna run out the clock.
Gosch has been an incompetent schlep on this from day one. The whole process he’s play-acting as a lawyer and haphazardly trying to run the committee like a jury trial while being both judge, jury, and part-time counsel for the defense. The only thing he’s succeeded in establishing is how the legislature should never deal with an impeachment in this fashion again.
I used to think it was some strategy to prop up the A.G. to keep Noem from making an appointment or just another inning in the endless 2nd vs. 3rd floor turf fight. Now, I think you’re right: it’s just clueless bungling.
They have told her repeatedly not to interfere but yet she persists…This is completely appropriate.
Come on people–she orchestrated ILLEGAL robocalls and even after getting caught she continues to interfere……
I think two things can be true at once- the Governor has been overly aggressive in pushing for her desired outcome in this process and released information inappropriately AND the Speaker has bungled this and handled it unprofessionally and not in the manner something this serious deserves.
I think it is entirely possible the Governor’s push ends up backfiring and they save Ravnsborg just to spite her, which is ridiculous because they should do the right thing no matter if it is hands someone you hate what they want.
There is a little bit of the enemy (Ravnsborg) of my enemy (Noem), is my friend going on here.
Completely agree with this. Seems like nobody handled anything competently or honestly.
Agree totally. There should never have been an impeachment hearing and the governor should have stayed out of it. As for her DPI Price, he should take a walk. His letter was totally inappropriate and only proved what a sleezeball he is. To put him in charge of public safety puts us all at risk.
Agreed, nothing is impeachable here. They open a lot of government officials to be impeachable based off of the criteria they put forth forth for the AG.
Noem and Price should have stayed quiet from day 1 and the system work itself vs trying to influence the outcome.