What’s up with our Teabag Republican Sheriff ?
This TPM story about a teabag Republican Sheriff in New Hampshire claiming outlandish powers under the Constitution (including the power to use deadly force to prevent doctors from performing legal abortions and the power to bring elected officials to trial in front of a “citizen’s grand jury”) made me pine for stories about our own Republican Sheriff.
Frank Szabo wants the people of Hillsborough County, N.H., to know that if they elect him as sheriff this year, he will do whatever it takes to stop doctors from performing abortions — even if that means using deadly force.
In an interview on Wednesday with local television station WMUR, Szabo said he believed sheriffs were granted special powers under the Constitution. That means, he said, he would be empowered to arrest or even use deadly force against doctors for providing legal abortions for women.
“I would hope that it wouldn’t come to that, as with any situation where someone was in danger,” Szabo said. “But again, specifically talking about elective abortions and late term abortions, that is an act that needs to be stopped.”
He clarified it did not apply to cases in which the mother’s life was in danger. “That’s a medical decision. That’s out of the area I’m talking about,” he said.
It’s not clear what kind of chance Szabo has at winning the race. He claims endorsements from Jack Kimball, the former chairman of the state Republican Party, as well as multiple tea party groups. But WMUR reported that the state’s House speaker was already calling for Szabo to drop out of the race after his comments surfaced.
Szabo said he believed sheriffs are given enormous authority under his interpretation of the Constitution. When pressed about what he would do if a prosecutor declined to charge a doctor he arrested, he said the answer was simple.
“If they choose not to do their duty and uphold the Constitution,” Szabo said, “they can be brought up on charges before what’s called a citizen’s grand jury, which is something that’s not that common in the United States. But again, it is something based in common law that’s within the purview of the county sheriff.”
I think our descendants will look back on the Tea Party as some kind of mass hysteria like the Salem witch trials. Future historians will be the ones to determine when the delusions began. 2008? 1994? 1980? It should be less difficult for them to pinpoint when the mania crested and broke, although we certainly can’t see it now.
“under his interpretation of the Constitution”.
Scholarly, I’m sure.
our Tea Bag Sheriff has been effectively neutered – by the REAL men and women that hold office – THANK YOU VEY MUCH!
didnt have balls, now he doesnt have a dick to go with them
but then again – he didnt have one to start with
The NH candidate sounds like our sheriff, in that they assert that common law trumps the Constitution. Somehow they don’t seem to get that what they really are talking about is tryanny. Only they are the tryants.
I am sure our sheriff has plans that will become evident at some point. I am also convinced that the sheriff and/or supporters were involved with the letter sent to the GA regarding Vance Phillips and the underage female in retribution for Phillip’s actions to neuter the sheriff. It could that the sheriff is keeping his head down and focusing on his job, hoping all this blows over by the time he is up reelection.
So is this a trend, then? That these delusional authoritarian types are focusing on the local Sheriff’s office to fulfill whatever craziness they are looking to inflict on the rest of us?
Yes. I recall reading some stuff in the Jeff Christopher threads about how wingnut sheriffs have their own mailing lists and secret societies where they congratulate themselves on their Constitutional authority and lay their plans for world domination. That’s why they all have the same talking points.