Politics & Government
Graham: Where The [Bleep] Is Gordon MacDonald?
NH Journal Managing Editor: Who the hell in 2026 is "not reachable?" Doesn't he own a cellphone? Is he locked in a CIA safe room?
Where the [bleep] is Gordon MacDonald?
When the chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court — and the man who oversees one of the three branches of state government — disappeared on “medical leave” a week ago without explanation, the court released a statement saying that, out of respect for his privacy, “no additional information will be released at this time.”
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Now we know why. The other justices didn’t release any information because they didn’t have any. MacDonald didn’t tell them what was happening, where he was going, or why. They don’t know when — or even if — he’s coming back.
Just “medical leave.”
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When the latest shoe in the Bobbi Hantz Marconi saga dropped Thursday, NHJournal reached out to MacDonald for comment. It’s his court, and he’s a potential witness at any hearing. The new charges against Marconi are just the latest embarrassing mess on his watch, and there are real questions about his competence.
No answer.
Not “no comment.” Not reachable.
Who the hell in 2026 is “not reachable?” Doesn’t he own a cellphone? Is he locked in a CIA safe room?
NHJournal then contacted the court. What’s up with the chief justice? Where is he? Is he coming back?
Worse than “none of your damn business,” the response was, “Apparently, it’s none of our damn business, either.”
“The chief justice’s medical providers have confirmed that he is not able to work at this time and have not forecasted the length of the chief justice’s leave,” the court said in a statement Thursday.
“Under state and federal law, a request for medical leave does not require the disclosure of diagnostic information and the chief justice has not disclosed such information. Accordingly, the judicial branch, including the other justices of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, have not received any information about the Chief Justice’s medical condition beyond the confirmation described above.” (Emphasis added.)
In other words, Gordon MacDonald has gone full “Mitch McConnell.” The courts and the citizens are on a need-to-know basis, and he’s decided we don’t need to know.
Of course, there are laws protecting medical privacy. But MacDonald isn’t some public defender or circuit court judge. He’s the guy running the entire system — admittedly, not very well.
Citing the law is the political equivalent of pleading the Fifth.
Who needs a Chief Justice Anthony Fauci? Or worse, Tom Kean Jr.
That’s the Republican congressman from New Jersey who cast his vote for Trump’s immigration crackdown on March 5, then disappeared for four months. His only explanation: an “undisclosed medical condition.”
Kean missed 140 votes, abandoned his constituents, then reappeared to announce that he had been treated for depression and wouldn’t be answering any more questions.
That, dear reader, is total … well, you know what it is.
And that’s what we’re getting from Gordon MacDonald.
Here’s the deal: If MacDonald is so seriously ill or incapacitated that he can’t do his job, he owes it to the citizens to step down. If he’s not that ill, then he owes them an explanation. Not blood-test results or CT scans. Just transparency about his general health and when he expects to return.
Talk or walk. There is no third option.
There’s a pragmatic political side to this, too. Thanks to the anti-Trump wave headed this way in November, there is a nonzero chance that Gov. Kelly Ayotte could lose this election. If a change is coming to the court, does Chief Justice “Mitch” MacDonald want to be New Hampshire’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg, too?
MacDonald could be back at work any day now. Then again, that’s what Kean’s staff said for months. McConnell’s staff is still saying it today.
Whether it’s next Monday or six months from now, MacDonald’s treatment of his job — and the people he works for (that’s you) — is unacceptable.
Our elected officials should demand that he do better.
This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.
