Going above and beyond the call of duty?
New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O’Brien is displaying a level of complete and utter dickishness unlike anything I have ever seen in my life.
State Rep. Tony Soltani is threatening legal action because he says House Speaker Bill O’Brien has refused to accommodate his disabilities in his seating assignment as part of an ongoing political dispute.“Since my election, and throughout my ordeal, I have been mistreated by the House leadership,” Soltani, an Epsom Republican, said in a letter last week to Greg Moore, O’Brien’s policy director. “I have been accorded no accommodation whatsoever. I am the only member with a documented disability in at least thirty years who has been so shabbily treated.”
What did O’Brien do? Check it out:
Between a bad fall in 2007 and a single-car accident last year, Soltani has sustained a broken pelvis and nerve damage to his left leg and thigh. He has only recently begun trying to walk without a cane, he said.O’Brien assigned Soltani an inner seat in the last row. Soltani said his “left leg can not negotiate the obstacles between the seats, and my repeated falls and bruises are a mere gift from your offices.”
“It is no secret that I have suffered from several disabilities, which have caused me great pain, discomfort and sometimes rendered me unable to perform my duties as I see them fit,” Soltani said. “My limp and inability to walk quickly exclude me from participating in the parliamentary process.”
Soltani said 11 House members, including Republicans and Democrats, have offered to switch seats with him but those requests have been denied by O’Brien, a Mont Vernon Republican of whom Soltani has been openly critical.
Unreal.
[CC image credit: Alex Proimos | Flickr]
