The South Dakota Senate will make history next week trying impeached Attorney General and killer Jason Ravnsborg, and Senator Ryan Maher (R-28/Isabel) is complaining about missing work and being hot:
Other senators have had less time to do their homework on the crash investigation. Republican Sen. Ryan Maher said he is already “agitated” because he will have to take a two-day break from running a new business to spend long hours in a Senate chamber likely baking in the summer heat. Lawmakers usually meet during the winter months, making air conditioning or cooling ventilation unnecessary.
“It’s going to be hot and we’re just going to sit there and sweat,” Maher said [Stephen Groves, “South Dakota Senators Silent on AG Impeachment Vote,” AP, 2022.06.16].
The forecast for Pierre on Tuesday, June 21, the first day of the Senate impeachment trial, is 62°F at dawn, high of 87°F later, with a nice refreshing northwest wind all day. Open the windows Monday night, bring some ice tea, and quit complaining about doing the job you were elected to do.
And hey, if you really listen to prosecuting attorney Mark Vargo‘s gripping presentation, you won’t even notice the heat.
Day 2 of the trial will be 87°F again, with a lighter southerly breeze. But hot or cold, Ravnsborg’s precipitation of this historic trial may mean he’s toast:
[Maher] said he did not know how he would vote, but said if Ravnsborg is convicted, he would probably vote to bar him from holding any future state office “just because he’s wasting my time now when he should have resigned” [Groves, 2022.06.16].
Hey, I’ll take a conviction and removal of an incompetent liar and killer from public office any way Senator Maher is willing to serve it.
The LRC has posted a trial agenda here. It notes that Senate gallery seating is first-come, first-served. Overflow seating will be available in Capitol Rooms 412, 413, and 414… all of which have air-conditioning.
They could have taken an hour to disbar and disemploy the worthless turd back in March. Don’t pretend you’re inconvenienced by doing your job now.
Good point, Bob. The Republican caucus in the house and the senate had total control over when this trial would happen. If they were worried about air-conditioning, they could easily have arranged to conduct this hearing during session or right afterwards in April. Instead, they waited, plunking impeachment after the primary but still in June, in the summertime, giving Jason Ravnsborg the most time possible to come to his senses and resign and the spare the Senate the effort and embarrassment of a trial and to ensure that the trial takes place when voters are less likely to be paying attention to the Legislature and thinking about how the Legislature‘s actions should affect their vote.
He sounds like a spoiled child. He says he would vote to ban Jason from holding further office, NOT because he ran over a pedestrian and killed him, lied about it and used his office to skirt conviction, but because “he’s wasting my time.” Really sounds like he needs to resign and let someone else suffer the heat and inconvenience. Fercryinoutlowd!
Note to Maher: See note to Paulsen.
As much as I’d enjoy watching Ravnsborg and his Senate sycophants squirm in their seats June 21-22, serious consideration should be given to investing less time on JRavnsborg’s worthless hide. Give fat, sweaty, delicate, entitled guys like Ryan Maher what they want. Win-win. Open the session, stand up to table the rules, demand an up-or-down vote to convict Ravnsborg, call the question if anyone wants to drag it out and get out of town within an hour.
Ravnsborg gets fed to the lions. Maher can stop whining. There will never be justice because of the Hyde and Beadle counties state attorneys inexcusable failure to level appropriate homicide charges, but it would be as close to just as it will ever get.
The process is 100 percent political. Not a court of law. Nothing here can be appealed. We know the outcome if Lee has a comfortable hard count. No point pretending it’s anything but a political vote of two-thirds or more of the Senate. Lee might get an easier win this way.
Oh, to be a servant to the people of our state; all the while acting just like a spoiled brat teenager expecting everything in life to be relevant and only as he thinks it should be! These whiny senators need to be ashamed of themselves. So sad that they are required to do something of note instead of picking on trans-teenagers and doing their utmost to control the 50% (or more) pf the population’s ultimate right to be their own masters of their bodies in reproduction-not at the behest and regulation by grumpy, fraidy-cat white men@
Maher could always quit. magat patriotism, if it exists at all, is all blow and no go.
Well…it seems Senator Maher is upset because the impeachment hearing is not about him.He’s overweight and sweats a lot, and its troublesome to do his constitutional duty and be a bit player in this drama. He believes he is carrying a heavy burden. And he is.
I never really paid much attention to the political meaning of the “snowflake” label, because it was a Reptilian designation for progressive Demoncrats, but, by golly, “snowflake” might be precisely the definition of “fat, sweaty, delicate, entitled guys.” Elegantly put, as usual, 96 Tears.
Loren, Jake, Mike & Arlo – Maher served as a Democrat for his first term in the State Senate, winning in 2008 on the heels of the Republican Rep. Ted Klaudt scandals.
Klaudt, until then deemed a “rising star” among SDGOP operatives, was charged with eight counts of rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of witness tampering, sexual contact with a person under 16 and stalking. Klaudt, probably the most morbidly obese legislator in state history, was Maher’s opponent for the seat held by retired Senator Betty Olson. Klaudt was convicted and sent to prison. Ryan defeated Klaudt’s replacement candidate and went to Pierre.
Maher decided in 2010 he was afraid he couldn’t get re-elected as a Democrat, so he switched parties. That’s all the more hilarious, in a sad clown kind of way, because Ryan was the life of the party in the Democrats’ Senate caucus and reportedly hosted a retreat for them at his bar and grill in Dewey County.
Now he acts like he’s a big dog in the GOP caucus. He wins elections without hardly trying. If you need a buddy, just toss him a biscuit and scratch his belly.
What Newland said but even a turd is far less worthless than Mr. Ravnsborg’s soul is.
96: an interesting proposal! Strip away the pretense to courtly deliberation, make clear the decision is what it is, a political call made after 21 months of exposure to Ravnsborg’s reckless disregard for human life, personal responsibility, and political good sense.
Part of me very much wants a full trial, laying out all the details, setting a precedent for the next impeachment (which, at this historical rate, our great-great and great3 grandkids will be conducting sometime in 2155). Another part of me would gladly see the Senate stop in its tracks minutes after Tuesday’s opening gavel, move to call a spade a spade, and summarily convict Ravnsborg.
What say you, readers? Do we need to work through the process as laid out by the Senate rules? Do we need to hear Vargo and Tracy’s full case and Butler’s well-developed response?
1. This should have been handled months ago.
2. This trial could have started as early as May 2nd. Republican Senators didn’t want to deal with this until after the primary vote, because they did not want the electors to know how they voted.
Stupidity and scared to deal with real problems. Typical of the elected who serve the people in SD. If this was something like CRT or LBQT, there would be no complaining about heat.
My bet, it will be short and sweet and under the sheets.
“What say you, readers? Do we need to work through the process as laid out by the Senate rules?”
Were we to not do so, would that not give Ravnsborg grounds to say that due process was not granted?
Curious. If Roe is overturned, will the Repunliqans gripe about showing up for a special session to further restrict women? I’ll bet they won’t be able to get to Pierre fast enuf, heat be damned. Just a guess.
A spot of felo-de-se on Ravnsborg’s part, followed by a hasty and unceremonious disposal in a Potter’s field, would spare all the whiny fat boys irksome effort and sweat. Yep, I’m being repetitious, yet honest.