On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Cody Henson, a former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives who served District 113 from 2017 until his resignation in July of 2019. Now, while we were concerned with Henson’s voting record, including how he was the co-sponsor of Voter ID bills to attempt to suppress the vote, or that he co-sponsored a bill to allow guns to church services, or how he voted for a bill to force local sheriffs to cooperate with ICE agents during immigration sweeps…We’d more like to talk about how Henson’s career was undone by accusations from his wife of domestic abuse, which she followed up by getting a protective order against him. Henson was charged with cyberstalking, and plead guilty to avoid jail time, settling for a sentence of 18 months probation for all the mental abuse and harassment he directed towards his wife. At first, he plead guilty, and wanted to finish out at least the rest of his term without resigning, but under pressure to leave office, caved in and announced his resignation in July of 2019. He won’t be missed, and we hope that his wife and children thrive without him lurking about.
On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Aaron von Erlinger, a former member of the Idaho House of Representatives who was first appointed to his seat in the legislature by Gov. Brad Little to replace the late Idaho state Thyra Stevenson, who passed away suddenly of a heart attack in May of last year, and he was on the job in June 2020. We’re betting that Little probably regrets the pick, considering that less than ten months into his career, Von Erlinger was accused of raping a 19 year-old intern who works in the state capitol. He resigned in disgrace a month later after the House Ethics Committee found him to have engaged in “conduct unbecoming” of a legislator, and unanimously it voted to recommend his suspension. So even without the crime he’s been accused of being investigated or litigated in court, he f***ed up bad enough that he had to get the boot. Even if the relationship was consensual (we believe the accuser that it wasn’t), it doesn’t exactly track with EEO guidelines within any workplace to date a subordinate, such as say, an intern who’s half your age… so even if his story about the encounter being consensual is true (we don’t believe him), he’s still violated a pretty clear workplace guideline that would warrant action being taken. Aaron von Erlinger was found guilty of rape, and will be sentenced on July 28th. We hope they throw the book, and any other blunt objects they can at him. As this will almost definitely end his political career, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1103-55, since this was established in July 2014.
Patricia Giddings
Welcome to what is the 1103rd original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Patricia Giddings, who currently serves as a member of the Idaho House of Representatives from District 7A, and first found her way into that office back in the 2016 elections. Our reason for profiling Giddings is quite simple… she responded to the news that fellow Republican Aaron von Ehlinger was accused of raping a 19 year old intern within the state legislature, by doxing his accuser online, sharing a link with the Jane Doe’s name and photo with thousands of her followers on social media, calling the allegations nothing more than a “[I[liberal smear job.[/I]” Ehlinger was, of course, found guilty in a court of law, but for her partisan defense, Giddings maligned a victim of rape.
The Idaho state legislature, which currently is decidedly Republican, voted 49-19 to censure Giddings for her actions. At the hearing where she was censured, she did not apologize, and doubled down that she would not have done anything differently.
Yes, that’s all terrible. So is her voting record these past five and a half years, including her attacks on any measure taken by Gov. Brad Little to stop the spread of Covid-19, whether it be vaccine mandates, or even as simple as mask mandates. She also racked up quite a record of transphobia, whether it was banning gender hormone treatments for persons under 18, or prohibiting gender changes on birth certificates. Rounding things out, she was opposed to voting by mail (during a pandemic no less), supported a ban on abortion when a fetal heartbeat can be detected (i.e. at six weeks, before many women realize they’re even pregnant), and placed a vote to ban the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” in schools, even though no one was actually teaching such a thing.
Patricia Giddings attempted to run for Lieutenant Governor of Idaho in the 2022 elections, attempting to replace the quite insane Janice McGeachin, who instead ran for Governor against Brad Little. Good news on both fronts, both Giddings and McGeachin were defeated in the Republican Primary for those seats. In Giddings’ case, other Republicans dropped out of the primary so that her main opponent, Scott Bedke, could more easily defeat her, and keep her as far away from ever having any say in the Governor’s mansion than anyone like her should be trusted to.
This is hopefully the first and last time we profile her.