State police were ordered to remove a Republican lawmaker from New Hampshire's House of Representatives after he shouted "Sieg Heil" and appeared to give a Nazi salute. Rep. Steve Vaillancourt said he was responding to actions of "tyrannical" House Speaker Bill O'Brien, whom he felt had restricted a Democratic lawmaker's remarks during a debate on voter identification, reports the Concord Monitor.
Vaillancourt, an outspoken critic of O'Brien's, returned after a motion was passed allowing him back in the chamber if he apologized to the House and O'Brien. One Republican representative, an 86-year-old World War II vet, said Vaillancourt should have been expelled permanently. Bob Kingsbury said he was a rifleman under Gen. George Patton, and lost many colleagues to men who said "Sieg Heil," the Union Leader reports. "I believe deep down" that what Vaillancourt said was a "personal, inflammatory and unnecessary insult," he said. (More New Hampshire stories.)