Advertisement NH House committee to probe Republican lawmaker who defended ‘rape isn’t an absolute bad’ comment After contentious debate, Democrat who posted controversial tweets also targeted for review Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A state lawmaker who has defended posting on a self-described men’s rights website that “rape isn’t an absolute bad” will appear before a New Hampshire House committee next week to explain why he should not be reprimanded, censured or possibly even expelled from the body. The House voted 307-56 Thursday to have the House panel review controversial comments made by state Rep. Robert Fisher, R-Laconia, but limited the committee's time frame to this year's legislative session. But the lopsided, bipartisan vote came only after a 182-180 vote to also have the committee review controversial comments on social media by Democratic Rep. Sherry Frost of Dover. Her tweets in recent months have included charges that “more terrorism is perpetrated by white men who claim Christianity than by Muslims in the USA,” and, “The people (read; men) telling me to ‘calm down’ & ‘not take it so hard’ are making me homicidal.” Both lawmakers said they will cooperate with the separate reviews by the House Legislative Administration Committee. The panel will take up Fisher's statements on Tuesday and Frost’s statements on Wednesday. The committee was instructed to report its conclusions to the full House on June 1, and if a vote on an action is recommended, the House would take that vote soon after. Fisher attended the House session and said only, “I’m confident the matter will be settled next week. Frost said she “may have been used as a tool” by Republicans in order to attract support for the review of Fisher. “I may have been put in there to give the Republicans cover to vote to send Fisher to the committee,” she said. “But I’m not particularly concerned. Everything that I’ve said has been said out in the open. I advocate for people with less privilege than me. I do my job." “Hyperbole is not the same as vicious misogyny,” she said. Both of the targeted lawmakers were among the 307 who voted in favor of the review. And later in the session, Fisher joined with 327 other House members in voting to strengthen the state’s rape shield law. State Rep. Jackie Cilley, D-Rochester, called the inclusion of Frost a “false equivalency” and “a bit of an eye for an eye.” She told reporters after the vote that Fisher “made just the most egregious comments about women, denigrating them repeatedly.” She said if Frost’s tweets “had risen to anywhere near that level, don’t you think that weeks ago, which is when those comments were made, her case would have been sent to the Legislative Administrative Committee to be looked at then?" “They needed a Democrat to throw under the bus, and there was just enough there to say, ‘Well, she’s good enough,’” Cilley said, noting that the Frost amendment passed by only two votes. The debate on the House floor Thursday even spilled out into the hallway, where Republican Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, accused Democrats of undermining freedom of speech “for political gain.” “It’s a bunch of BS,” Baldasaro said in a brief back-and-forth with Cilley. The State House drama was the latest fallout from a story about Fisher last week on The Daily Beast website, which alleged after an investigation of various online aliases that Fisher was the creator of Red Pill, a message board on Reddit.com that contained derogatory comments about women. After the story was published, Fisher issued statements charging that The Daily Beast report took many of his posts out of context. The post about rape was part of an online debate about “the failings of moral relativism” and “absolute truth,” he said. The revelations in The Daily Beast story prompted calls for Fisher to resign from the House by Gov. Chris Sununu, House Speaker Shawn Jasper and state Republican Party Chair Jeanie Forrester. But Fisher flatly refused, writing last week, “I'm not interested in letting manufactured moral outrage over some out-of-context non-quotes dictate whether I'm going to do my job in Concord.” As criticism of Fisher mounted on social media, Jasper and House Democratic Leader Steve Shurtleff told WMUR on Wednesday night that on Thursday, Shurtleff would make a motion to have the Fisher matter referred to the House Legislative Administration Committee. Jasper said the motion would then be amended by a Republican to also refer Frost’s statements to the same panel. With protesters against Fisher gathered outside the State House and later, in the hallway adjacent to Representatives Hall, Shurtleff told the House in making his motion, “Any time any member says anything or does anything that holds this body in disrespect, it affects each and every one of us.” Rep. Neal Kurk, R-Weare, questioned whether the proposal would infringe on freedom of expression, “no matter how distasteful that expression may be.” And Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, said he has seen inappropriate comments made by lawmakers in the past, but he said, “It is for the voters of that district to make the decision whether any member’s comments are appropriate.” But Shurtleff said Fisher’s remarks were “egregious” and “disparages half the citizens of our state. This reaches such a high level, that for this body not to take some appropriate action, if that’s warranted, would be wrong of us.” After the vote, House Majority Leader Richard Hinch, R-Merrimack, who chairs the Legislative Administration Committee, said, the panel will review only comments made during the current term, and, he said, the committee will have to decide if the 31-year-old Fisher’s defense last week of his earlier comments – some made as far back as 2008 -- qualifies for review under that time frame. Cilley said, “I think a pattern of behavior over time should all be a part of this inquiry. When you hold such a low opinion, when you hold in contempt half of the people of this state, you do not deserve a seat representing them.” At the end of the Thursday session, Rep. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, read a statement saying, “Our distinguished body has been negatively cast in the national spotlight.” Fisher has “nurtured and cultivated” what she called a “rape culture,” which has also been advanced by others in the House. “He has not denied his active leadership in the community, but instead offered self-serving justifications,” Altschiller said, asking House members to “create an environment that is more respectful, more sensitive to victims of sexual violence and more aware of how what we say and what we don’t say influences the people we represent.” Following the session, Jasper said the review approved by the House may be a first of its kind. “I don’t think we’ve ever done anything quite like this,” the speaker said. “Normally, there would be something that would fall under ethics guidelines, and there would be a complaint made by somebody, and it would go to the ethics committee.” “I don’t believe there is anything in the ethics guidelines that either of the two have violated,” Jasper said. “Had we believed that, that would have been the course we would have chosen. But there has been a lot of public outrage over remarks that have been made, and we’ll see where it goes.”