Nicole Harris is Stuck on Stupid
What's the worst thing to do in a bad situation? Make it worse!
If one didn’t know better, one might think Nicole Harris is a Democratic Plant sent to bury the Republicans once and for all. Little else can explain the continued incompetence of the Harris Regime.
After nominating an election denier to serve on the Board of Elections and having it (correctly) rejected, Maryland Republican Party Chairman Nicole Harris has doubled down on her selection of election denier (and, as it turns out, convicted embezzler) William Newton by threatening legal action.
In a statement released by the party, Harris made a statement that is absolutely hard to fathom.
The most bizarre sentence in the statement is the “perception of integrity” that Harris brings up. The reason that people lack "a “perception of integrity” is because people like William Newton and people like Harris’s own husband Andy Harris sow doubt in the minds of average Americans by spewing bullshit conspiracy theories without any statements to back them up.
Ordinary people don’t think the election system lacks integrity, because they have enough brain cells to understand that the accusations brought forth by the deniers are full of it. After all, there is a reason that every single one of Newton’s assertions and every single one of the assertions by the Trump campaign that Trump lickspittle Andy Harris regurgitates has stood up to judicial scrutiny.
Nicole Harris is continuing to spin up conspiracies of illegitimacy by not only nominating somebody like William Newton but doubling down on it when the ruse didn’t work.
Harris made comments to Maryland Matters this afternoon which are just as unhinged:
“Being a skeptic is not a disqualifier for a board of elections official — it should be a requirement,” Harris said.
Harris said she believes Moore had an obligation to forward Newton to the Senate Executive Nominations Committee. Such a move could have placed Senate Republicans in an uncomfortable position of either defending a nominee with a criminal record or bucking the party’s new leader, who is also the wife of Rep. Andy Harris (R).
“Governor Moore seems to think he is an emperor rather than a governor,” Harris said of Moore’s rejection of Newton.
While the party consults with attorneys, Harris said she will forward a new nomination to meet the Senate’s “time-limited schedule.”
“The new nomination does not mean that this situation and Governor Moore’s improper notification and rejection are resolved,” she said. “Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to hold this administration’s feet to the fire and make them operate within all laws and statutes with no exceptions — especially regarding election law.”
To call Newton a skeptic is to be generous. Furthermore, what Moore did in refusing to appoint Newton does not violate the Election Law Article of Maryland:
(2) Subject to subsection (e) of this section, the Governor shall appoint as a member of the State Board an individual whose name is submitted to the Governor by the State Central Committee of the principal political party entitled to the appointment.
The law requires that the appointee be submitted by the Party. Not that the nominee must be appointed upon submission.
So now, Harris is:
Continuing to defend Newton as qualified;
Threatening legal action over something that was completely legal under the law; and,
Glossing over the fact that her hand-picked selection for the State Board of Elections was convicted of embezzlement and, from what her statements say, is utterly untroubled by that.
Of all the hills to die on, why anybody would pick this one is mind-numbing. And yet Harris continues to step in it and make the situation worse.
Nicole Harris seems unwilling to learn from her numerous mistakes. And if Republicans want to survive, they may need to force Harris from office before she finishes burning the joint to the ground.