Josh Hawley's keeping his law license
For now...
When the photo of Missouri’s Lanky Fascist raising his fist in support of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists began circulating, I and some compatriots filled out a complaint form with Missouri’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel. We did so because, as the counsel says:
When lawyers enter the practice of law in Missouri, they obligate themselves to uphold the law and to abide by the Rules of Professional Conduct governing members of The Missouri Bar. The purpose of attorney discipline is to protect the public and the administration of justice from attorneys who have not discharged their professional duties to clients, the public, the legal system, and the legal profession. The professional conduct of attorneys is governed by Supreme Court Rule 4 and the discipline process is governed by Supreme Court Rule 5.
Hawley, who served as Missouri’s attorney general from 2017-19, exhibited egregious behavior the day of the insurrection, and his subsequent fuckwittery since (including racing away from the mob he helped incite, and then turning around and trying to sell merchandise glorifying his grievous act) does not, to me, abide by the rules of professional conduct for any one, even a member of The Missouri Bar.
I filed a similar form after St. Louis attorneys Pat and Mike McCloskey aimed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters as they walked past their palatial home in 2020. The Missouri Supreme Court eventually put the McCoskeys on probation (the counsel asked their law licenses be suspended) and the U.S. Supreme Court, when the lawyers applied to have their case heard, said, “Nah.” The McCloskeys’ probation requires:
…the McCloskeys, in written quarterly reports, to note any arrests, criminal charges, civil lawsuits, disputes with clients, investigations questioning their fitness to practice law and reports of additional disciplinary complaints.
The court also ordered them to provide 100 hours of pro bono legal services during their terms of probation.
Remember them?
And why should I care? I’m from Missouri. I take it personally when one of my own shows his/her/their flaming behind in public. It’s a matter of honor to address sin in your camp, and my camp includes (but is not limited to), Missouri, evangelical Christians, and the angry little corp of same known as fundamentalist Christians. I see one of my own acting stupid in public, I see it as a kindness to help them off the stage.
You could devote the rest of your life simply by focusing on Missouri politicians. Based on his notoriety and very little else, Mark McCloskey recently attempted to run for U.S. Senate, but he got a shellacking, and gained just 3% of the votes in the state’s recent GOP primary election. This proves that though my beautiful state will cheerfully scrape the bottom of the barrel to recruit their elected officials, the McCloskeys are simply a bridge too far.
I’d like to think my weighing in helped, but if it did, it was — at most — a tiny drop in a very big bucket, so it makes me sad that the counsel decided that the rules are different for Runnin’ Josh Hawley, according to the letter I received:
More to the point, the counsel suggested that Hawley’s actions are:
“Constitutionally protected.” This is at the heart of questions around the former president’s involvement/incitement with/of the insurrection. When do words become fighting words? I believe even a casual observer could make a good argument that Hawley’s words and actions saw the line, leaped over it, and then turned around and tried to sell coffee mugs to raise funds over that leap.
Here’s a mug for you, Josh, you insufferable twit:
I am contemplating pursuing this further. Why? Because right is right, and Hawley is wrong and if enough people weigh in and speak up, even the Missouri Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel may pay attention. My school year starts next week but I have all the time in the world for this.
Maybe start a movement to send Hawley pairs of running shoes like 10,000 of them all in the same week. But only send him used, smelly shoes.
The big pussy Josh Hawley reminds me so much of my former Congressman Ryan Costello, another little twit who was gifted his seat by the local Republican establishment. Like the big pussy Josh Hawley, Ryan had also had a brush with danger--he was on his way to the Congressional baseball game in 2017 when the gunman opened fire. After that he was totally freaked out by any contact with any of his constituents. He refused to hold a town hall, so the local Dems invited him to ours. He demurred, calling the auditorium we had rented "a death trap." He ultimately held a couple of town halls but you had to be hand-picked to be admitted. The security was unbelievable. There was another incident where a couple of Black people tried to canvass his house and Ryan called the cops, thinking that they were going to kill him. Our group, including yours truly, started challenging him on his pussy-ness in public and that absolutely infuriated him, which encouraged us to do it more (he ultimately won the 2018 primary but then decided not to run, fucking up his district for the Rs and leaving the door open for a true superstar, Chrissy Houlahan). Therefore I would strongly encourage whoever challenges the Big Pussy Josh Hawley in the primary or general election of 2024 to ALWAYS REFER to the Big Pussy Josh Hawley as "the Big Pussy Josh Hawley." You could do a whole theme around it, like challenging him to an exhibition boxing match.