[edit] Rep. Charlie Bass (R-NH)
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- Born: January 8, 1952
- Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
- Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
- Notes: When your old man's U.S. Representative Perkins Bass (2nd District, NH, 1955-1962), and your grandfather's Governor Robert T. Bass (NH, 1911-1913), chances are slim you'll ever get called "Private Bass," even if you are born in 1952.
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[edit] Rep. Charles Gwynne Douglas, III (R-NH)
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- Born: Dec. 2, 1942
- Employer: Was U.S. Taxpayer
- Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
- Notes: Not so notable for bellicosity, but he makes up for it with fervid Republican zeal. Graduated from UNH in 1965, when the draft was pretty strong, but went straight to BU Law. Got out of there in 1968, when it was even stronger. No problem - Ol’ Chuck was “admitted to the bar in 1968 and commenced practice in Manchester, N.H., 1970-1974,” according to an unimpeachable source. How’s he manage to avoid Vietnam? According to that same source, http://bioguide.congress.gov, the future Congressman (NH, 2nd District, 1989-1991) was a “[C]olonel, New Hampshire Army National Guard, 1968 to present.
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[edit] James "Jim" Finnegan
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- Born: August 1, 1930
- Employer: William "Bill" Loeb
- Conflict Avoided: Korea
- Notes: Next to God himself - sorry, we mean William Loeb - Jim Finnegan probably wielded the most feared editorial pen in the Granite State. Oddly enough for a guy born in 1930, he never got around to serving in Korea.
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[edit] Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)
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- Born: February 14, 1947
- Employer: The U.S. Taxpayeer
- Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
- Notes: Another member of New Hampshire’s hereditary political aristocracy (see also: Charlie Bass and John Sununu) Judd’s daddy was Governor of New Hampshire from 1953 to 1955. Young Judd graduated from Columbia in ‘69 and apparently went straight to BU Law until the coast was clear. For good measure, he got written up for bad knees. They weren’t so bad he couldn’t spend half his term as Governor on the ski slopes.
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[edit] Richard "Dick" Lessner
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- Born: Unk.
- Employer: www.american-renewal.org
ex-Manchester (NH) Union-Leader
- Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
- Notes: Richard “Dick” Lessner did a brief but hilarious stint as Jim Finnegan’s successor at the Manchester Union Leader (he got canned after a column poking fun at French Canadians blew up in his face). Lessner’s writing style always reminded us of Major Amos B. Hoople in Gene Ahern's comic, "Our Boarding House.” As did his physical presence, which the Gazette's editor had the pleasure of experiencing during a chat in his office on William Loeb Drive, thanks to the kind offices and ample gall of our War Correspondent. Unlike the fictitious Major, though, Lessner never spent a day in uniform. He spent the ‘Nam years in Divinity School.
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[edit] William "Bill" Loeb
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- Born: 1905
- Employer: Self
- Conflict Avoided: WWII
- Notes: Publisher of the infamous Manchester (NH) Union-Leader. A chickenhawk extraordinaire, who kept a whole coop of chickenhawks on his payroll to cluck a whole state into submission. The thrice-married Loeb’s love life could have been the inspiration for Newt Gingrich’s, but that needn’t concern us here. He once provoked his mother into suing him, but again, that’s not the point. Plenty of men his age served in WWII. Somehow Bill managed not to. The Gazette's voluminous archives include a letter from Loeb, on Union Leader stationery, to the present editor of the Gazette. What will that be worth on e-bay one day?
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[edit] Joseph "Joe" McQuaid
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- Born: February 12, 1949
- Employer: The Manchester Union Leader
- Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
- Notes: Chronologically the last, and indesputably the least in a long line of Union Leader chickenhawks, Joe graduated from Manchester Memorial High in ‘67 and slid right on over to UNH. He bailed in ‘69, though. Good thing for him he had a “trick shoulder.” Went to work at the Manchester daily his daddy co-founded, and rose to the top with a lot of help from the Grim Reaper. Funny thing - that trick shoulder never hurt his golf game.
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[edit] Gov. Meldrim "Mel" Thomson (R-Orford)
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- Born: March 8, 1929
- Employer: His Daddy's Publishing Co, Inc.
- Conflict Avoided: Korea
- Notes: Meldrim Thomson, New Hampshire’s quintessential Goofy Governor, once sought to arm the state’s National Guard with nuclear weapons. Some thought he wanted nukes to blast the Clamshell Alliance out of the way, so his pals at PSNH could build the Seabrook nuclear power plant. You might think that such a notoriously bellicose individual, twenty-one years old when the Reds crossed the line in Korea, might have managed to get into the fight - but you would be wrong.
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[edit] Donn Tibbetts
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- Born: November 29, 1930
- Employer: The Manchester Union Leader
- Conflict Avoided: Korea
- Notes: Hey - it’s not our fault so many of New Hampshire’s Notable Chickenhawks worked for the Union Leader. Birds of a feather, you know. For decades, Donn Tibbetts played reporter in the pages of Bill Loeb’s infamous Onion Loader. No doubt generations of reporters learned how to subtly skew their stories by scrutinizing his work while getting their tickets punched at our quadrennial President-fest. This feisty workingman’s hero inexplicably missed service in Korea, despite being a ripe nineteen when the shooting started. Go figure.
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