Welcome to the 595th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’re going to be talking about Pete Nielsen, a former member of the Idaho House of Representatives from 2002-2016 who was enough of an extremist that the Idaho Republican Party still thought he was unfit to be trusted to do much of anything, and in the fourteen years he served in the state legislature, Nielsen was never appointed to oversee a legislative committee nor won a legislative leadership position. Now, what brought Pete Nielsen to our attention was that in February 2016, he was engaged in debate over a bill that would require mandatory intra-vaginal ultrasound bill for women seeking abortions, without exceptions for rape or incest, and Nielsen decided to state his belief that you can’t get pregnant from rape.
After the hearing, he even clarified to the media:
“I’m convinced because of the trauma it would not be like it was with consensual sex.”
Sounds like yet another Republican who went to the Todd Akin school of f***ed up science facts, eh?
Well, a few days later, likely after Republican Party leaders cornered Nielsen and shook the holy f*** out of him for repeating one of the same mistakes that doomed them only four years earlier in the 2012 elections, he changed his tune, saying that he had once read medical journals that made him believe what he was saying was true, but that upon reviewing the facts, he was wrong, and a woman can get pregnant if she is raped. However, he wasn’t about to allow for the exception in the bill for rape or incest victims, in spite of his new revelation.
Now, we would like to say that Nielsen didn’t run for re-election in 2016 because of that gaffe, but he was 78, so maybe he just felt ift was time to call it a career. Or maybe, he felt he would have also been marred by his January 2016 arrest on the charges of illegally poaching an elk. Honestly, bagging an elk through shady means doesn’t concern us here as much as Nielsen’s voting record:
- March 1st, 2010: Nielsen votes for H 496, Idaho Republicans’ Voter ID bill.
- February 16th, 2011: Nielsen votes for H 117, Idaho Republicans’ attempt at nullifying the Affordable Care Act.
- March 1st, 2012: Nielsen votes for SJM 104, a resolution petitioning Congress to remove the insurance mandate that insurance companies cover insurance costs for any contraception their employees might need.
- March 6th, 2014: Nielsen votes for S 1254, to authorize the concealed carry of firearms on college and university campuses.
- March 20th, 2015: Nielsen votes for HJM 4, a resolution to seek the impeachment of any member of the judiciary who rules in favor of same sex marriage.
- February 10th, 2016: Nielsen votes for HB 463, a block on local municipalities from raising their own minimum wage.
- February 17th, 2016” Nielsen co-sponsors and votes for S 1342, an attempt to have the Bible taught in public schools.
- March 1st, 2016: Nielsen votes for HB 516, the anti-abortion law that would require mandatory intra-vaginal ultrasounds to be performed prior to a doctor performing an abortion, without exceptions for rape or incest.
And so ends the career of another “legitmate rape” enthusiast. We’re still not convinced there aren’t still a bunch of these yahoos out there in the GOP, at any level of government, however.
One Year Ago, August 2nd, 2016: Michael Folk (WV)
Two Years Ago, August 2nd, 2015: Scott Renfroe (CO)
Three Years Ago, August 2nd, 2014: Stephen Broden (TX)