This morning, Gordon Howie, who might just have schlepped himself out to Pierre for one of Bosworth’s free hotel rooms that she was offering is writing this morning without the benefit of information, accuracy, or a brain to guide him as he makes his daily excuse for Annette Bosworth’s poor judgement:
As I sat watching, it was hard not to wonder about the intensity with which the Jackley team attacked Bosworth in their attempt to convict her of 12 felony charges over petition errors which her defense maintain were “honest mistakes”.
It was also hard to wonder where Jackley was when then Republican Speaker of the House Brian Gosh purposely violated the law by notarizing his own signatures on his own petitions. Nothing. No consequence. The Attorney General did not marshal a team of lawyers and engage the director of the DCI to launch an investigation. There was no consequence whatsoever, even though Gosh is an attorney himself and should reasonably have known better.
Why this obvious double standard?
Read it here.
First off, as Howie should have noticed by the testimony yesterday, there are distinct and separate parts of the petition. The Declaration of candidacy. The portion where voters sign, and the attestment of the circulator (The part Bosworth is in trouble for).
Howie is mewling & trying to say “but..but…but… Brian Gosch did it too” – a statement which is completely and utterly false.
For the petitions that Brian Gosch had circulated on his behalf, he had filled out the top portion, where he declared his candidacy. Someone else circulated the petitions, and returned them to Gosch, signing in his presence. What Gosch did was to notarize the petitions, which is an attestment to the fact that the person signing the oath that they were circulator appeared in his presence, which he confirmed.
A completely, and utterly legal act…. as Stephanie Strong found out to her detriment when she tried to use the court system to gin up the issue. It had been legal, and was quite legal at the time when he did it. The legislature has changed the law since, but at the time, it was just fine.
But, don’t bother getting Gordon Howie to try to accept troubling little things like facts.