Things are getting petty over in Vermont’s state legislature. On Monday, Republican representative Mary Morrissey admitted to repeatedly dumping water in her colleague’s canvas bag over the course of several months. If you’re wondering why a state representative might pour water into a fellow lawmaker’s bag, you’re not alone: Mary Morrissey is also unsure why someone might do such a thing. According to Democratic legislator Jim Carroll (the man on the receiving end of the dumping), the 67-year-old has claimed she has no idea why she began offloading the single cups of water into her coworker’s green tote, per local outlet Seven Days. That’s very helpful, Mary.
So, how did we get here? As he told the Guardian Tuesday, Carroll, who has served two terms in the Vermont legislature, first noticed that his work bag was damp in January. When the bag wetting continued, Carroll suspected his counterpart Morrissey was to blame. The GOP lawmaker — who has served 13 terms and represents the same district as Carroll — had apparently been “nasty” to him for months, saying “demeaning things in front of other legislators” despite having grown up together. Growing desperate to catch the culprit, Carroll eventually decided to record several weeks worth of secret footage from his bag’s point of view. That footage, as published by Seven Days, pointed to Morrissey as the water cup menace.
Upon watching the recordings, Carroll told the Guardian he felt “sad.” When confronted, the Republican lawmaker reportedly said she didn’t know the tote was Carroll’s, adding that she’d initially just “flicked” water on it to kill a bug. As to why she’d continued dumping water in the bag, Morrissey told Carroll she simply didn’t know. (Seven Days, however, suggests that the bag drama may have been connected to Carroll’s drunk driving arrest in February.) “At the end of the meeting, I looked at her and said, ‘You know, this has really fucked me up,’” the Democrat said. “There were weeks when I didn’t know who was doing this or why. I walked around this place, paranoid of my fellow legislators, racking my brain trying to think, ‘What could I have possibly said or done?’”
During Vermont’s state house session Monday, Boston.com reports, Morrissey apologized for her petty behavior, calling it “disrespectful” and noting that she had already privately apologized to Carroll. “It was conduct most unbecoming of my position as a representative and as a human being, and is not reflective of my 28 years of service and civility,” Morrissey said, asking for forgiveness from her colleagues and the citizens of Vermont. “I am truly ashamed of my actions.”
Per the Guardian, Carroll is still deciding whether to pursue harassment charges against Morrissey. But when asked if he was ready to forgive his colleague, the 62-year-old said, “I guess I would have to say yes in the spirit of forgiveness, reluctantly. But if I had to be a smartass, I’d say her apology holds about as much water as my canvas bag.” Touché, Jim.
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