At the start of this interview, we needed to finish with a call on the state of civility in our current political theatre, which was a holdover from the previous segment.

NH State Senator Tim McGough joined us to briefly touch on what the Union Leader’s Kevin Landrigan described as a “food fight on Aisle 5,” a very public exchange within the GOP Senate caucus (see notes below for additional comments).

The original intent of the interview was to get a sense of the process for the current legislation that is still under review, and how the NH Senate was handling the bill that came over from the House during crossover.

Sen.McGough and I also talked about the GoNorth Rural Healthcare program ad funding.

Jeff’s Notes:

This matter has received significant press coverage, and several parties involved have made public statements. However, over the past 48 hours, the tone of this story has changed, and its media coverage is slipping.

While many in the press have been pursuing all parties involved in this squabble, Sen. McGough honored his original commitment to appear on our show. Some in the press, and even some in both political parties, wanted me to ask questions that no one involved, including Senator McGough, wants to discuss or answer publicly. Dead air makes for terrible radio.

I asked Sen. McGough for his thoughts on last week’s events. He took the stance that all the other major players (named and unnamed) took: to make a statement expressing a desire to move on from the issue, and, for the most part, the Senator appeared genuinely contrite  (not that this matters in politics).

He did state that “last Thursday was not my finest hour, or the finest hour.” 

I do not have access to all the parties concerned in this matter, and this has been described as a personnel matter (meaning that certain details have not been, nor may not be available for public review). Until more information becomes available, WFEA will continue to monitor the situation and determine the next best course of action.

I respect the journalist who reached out to me and appreciate their attention to this story. It is not to say that we don’t cover intra- or inner-party squabbles; it’s just that The Morning Update tends to focus on policy issues (including the public squabbles that politicians confuse for debate) and issues affecting individual liberty.