The self-congratulatory celebration from some of my fellow Democrats over the defeat of Gordon MacDonald’s nomination is both sad and sickening.
He is a dedicated public servant with unassailable character, integrity, intellect and judgment. I worked with him for 22 years. Our political views are different, but he is no extremist operative. Painting him with the political views of his former boss Gordon Humphrey or a political think tank is ridiculous.
Far from partisanship, MacDonald led efforts to raise more money for underfunded legal services than anyone else– Democrat or Republican. He quietly served victims of domestic violence for free. He represented the 26 acute care hospitals in litigation to secure tens of millions of federal dollars to increase New Hampshire’s worst-in-the-country Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospital care to the poor and indigent. He wrote the three-volume book that all N.H. courtroom lawyers rely on daily. He led, at the request of the Supreme Court, two important bipartisan committees on bar admissions and court reform. The executive councilors and those who scripted their conduct looked past all of this to unfairly and unjustly trash a thoroughly decent inclusive and collaborative person. I challenge the councilors to identify MacDonald’s so-called extremist views. They can’t. It is made up from whole cloth.
It is truly a sad day in New Hampshire. Litmus tests and guilt by association have arrived. What comes around inevitably goes around. This is tragic. And I am embarrassed to be a Democrat.
SCOTT O’CONNELL
Amherst