We’ve written in the past about the many, many, many misdeeds of New Hampshire’s GOP state House majority since taking power in 2010. But we had no idea things were equally bad behind the scenes.

One GOP representative has reported being threatened by a fellow Republican official back home, who told her “I know where you live, and I'm coming to get you.”

And this op-ed from Democratic state Rep. Laura Pantelakos – a 33-year veteran of the legislature – reveals a GOP leadership that has lost all interest in transparency, decency, or the will of the people. The entire article is worth reading, but here are the key passages that stood out to us:

We had representatives in the window yelling slurs at the people. We had representatives in the hall yelling at people. These people came to Concord because the Republican Party had voted to take away union rights to collective bargaining. There was no public hearing and an amendment was passed late at night. Comments were made on the floor of the House from the sponsor of the amendment that it was done to bring the state worker to his way of thinking. This same representative made the statement he wished all the retirees would start smoking and die off, then we would not have to worry about the pensions.(…)

I can not stand by and allow these kinds of mean people to accuse union members of being thugs because they stood up for their rights. I am very proud to be a state representative elected by the voters of Portsmouth and Newington, even though the House of Representatives is now controlled by a dictator and his henchmen. The kind of man who takes a woman into a room and screams at her so bad he brought her to tears — all because she brought in an amendment to put back some of the programs for the poor and elderly. By the way, he had one of his henchmen with him. This woman is a real Republican, not a Tea Party member. Not allowing a representative of your own party to propose amendments that they believe in certainly lends itself to a dictatorship, in my opinion. "My way or no way" is his motto. He is the speaker of the House, and for that reason I have to respect his position as speaker. However, I could never respect him as a man.

[emphasis added]