newsobserver.com projects - Kicked out - Comments

Re: Kicked out

bellaparola — Sat, 19 May 2007 16:39:10 -0400

Thanks for that information. I had wondered about both the background and procedures for expelling a member who doesn't resign under such circumstances. Please continue to keep us abreast.

Re: Kicked out

gercohen — Fri, 18 May 2007 09:55:28 -0400

Google books turns up
A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect - Google Books Resultby John Howard Nodal, George Milner - 1875 - 290 pages
which says that in Lancashire dialect a "Gonner head" or "gander head" is a stupid person. This 1875 book is a contemporary usage to the 1880 expulsion

gander has three meanings according to dictionary.com:

1) male goose (noun)
2) to look at (verb)
3) simpleton or ninny (slang) (noun)

Kicked out

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 18 May 2007 08:35:53 -0400

The North Carolina legislature last kicked out a lawmaker in 1880.

House Speaker Joe Hackney has said that his staff is researching whether Rep. Thomas Wright could be expelled for campaign finance problems.

The practice has been rare in modern times, in part because many legislators choose to resign.

But it was common in the 18th and 19th centuries. The last legislator expelled was Josiah Turner Jr., a Hillsborough lawyer and editor of the Raleigh Sentinel.

After losing a Congressional race, Turner's behavior became "very erratic," according to one account:

He manifested a special antipathy to the speaker, Hon John M. Moring, whom he denominated as a "gander head," and his conduct was so obstreprous that at length the body, worn out by his unruly and unseemly proceedings, was driven to expel him as a member.

Hackney's staff is also trying to determine what a "gander head" is.

Hat Tip: The Insider