1st Ammendment Awards, Not for OUR selectmen!

Welcome to another contributor under the Publius byline.

Patricia Goodridge said...

Perhaps the blog author might consider posting at least part of this article from today's Union Leader.

It is about honors given out last night to NH recipients at the First Admendment Awards Dinner in Manchester.

One award was about stopping secret town meetings another about money hidden in a town's budget.

Perhaps next year Atkinson should nominate someone from our town.
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First Amendment Awards: Fighting for freedoms
By SCOTT BROOKS
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
4 hours, 32 minutes ago



MANCHESTER – The 2002 McCain-Feingold Act that put restrictions on campaign contributions and expenses is the most dangerous threat to the First Amendment in U.S. history, columnist George Will said last night in Manchester.

"I've been in Washington 37 years and I believe the worst law passed in my time in Washington is the McCain-Feingold Act," the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer said.

Will directed a host of gripes at both Congress and the media last night in a keynote address at the First Amendment awards banquet sponsored by the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications. In a half-hour speech, he lamented what he described as an "entitlement culture" in the U.S. and said the public has been ill served by journalists who write to entertain, but not always to inform.

"By detaching public discourse from facts, we are encouraging an entitlement mentality that produces a nation with an absurdly low 'think' threshold and an absurdly high amount of whininess in the public discourse," he said.

The annual dinner at the Center of New Hampshire in downtown Manchester put a spotlight on two Granite Staters who have fought against government secrecy. The night's top honor, the 2007 Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award, went to Dover City Councilor and former state Rep. David Scott, who took his city to court in an effort to unseal employee financial records.

Scott sued the city of Dover in 2004. A judge ruled in his favor, which led to the revelation, he said, that seven city employees were earning more than $100,000.


Columnist George Will speaks as New Hampshire Union Leader President and Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid looks on last night at the Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award dinner in Manchester. (DAVID LANE)
"I've heard people say you can't fight City Hall. I disagree," Scott, 78, said. "You can fight city hall and win."

Also last night, Littleton resident Sharon Craigie was named an honoree for challenging town selectmen who held a meeting they later conceded had not been properly posted.

"I believe you need to be open and up front with everybody," said Craigie, 62. "If you're open with the people and tell them what's going on, they won't think you're trying to hide something."

Craigie has taken an active role in Littleton politics since the selectmen's meeting in August. Her husband, former Littleton selectman Donald Craigie, proudly calls her a "pushy broad."

"Instead of yelling at me, she's doing something that accomplishes something," he said. His wife laughed at the joke.

Attorney Gregory Sullivan received a special First Amendment award in recognition for his work at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications.

In an interview before the dinner, Will said he believes former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will make history by becoming the first Republican to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Romney has been leading the polls in both states, though former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is far ahead in most national polls.

Will said Giuliani is spending enough money in New Hampshire to be taken seriously here, but he suspects the former mayor could "very easily" go 0-4 in nominating contests before voters in Florida have their say.

"That's what Mr. Giuliani is counting on, is a cascade effect that will simply overwhelm the earlier primaries," Will said.

In an odd twist, he said, Romney could still get a boost if Democratic Sen. Barack Obama pulls out a win in Iowa. Media coverage of an Obama victory would likely eclipse the Republican race, he said, and would prompt the lion's share of New Hampshire independents to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary.

That, Will said, would injure both Giuliani and Sen. John McCain.

The race for New Hampshire's Democratic delegates is not sewn up, Will said, despite polls that show Sen. Hillary Clinton, of New York, with a wide lead over both Obama and former Sen. John Edwards. He said many voters in New Hampshire are suspicious of Clinton's cautiousness as a candidate and her hesitation to take a firm stance on whether driver's licenses should be offered to illegal immigrants.

"She's incautiously cautious," he said. "It's costing her."