With Voters Muzzled, Stitt and Legislature Rekindle Personal Feuds and Petty Political Games

Now that they’ve successfully teamed to clamp down on the rights of Oklahoma voters and limit the ability of the people to overcome the ineptitude, inaction, and incompetence of elected officials, Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Legislature are back to engaging in petty, personal, and very headline-generating political games.

Last week, following Governor Stitt’s record-breaking Veto-A-Thon 2025, the Legislature decided to confront his red-inked revenge and began overriding many of the vetoes he issued for totally valid reasons—like settling personal grudges, indulging in political spite, or acting on absurdly moronic ideological whims that ignored all context and reason.

As a result, a butt-hurt Stitt — a disillusioned man who thinks he has legitimate political weight and influence outside of his office and pocketbook — issued a Facebook video calling for the lawmakers who voted against his vetoes to be ousted from office.

Via The Tulsa World:

Around noon, as the House voted to override 27 of his vetoes and the Senate 18, Stitt used his official Facebook page to post a video calling on voters to oust legislators — most of whom were fellow Republicans — who voted for overrides.

Stitt portrayed himself as the champion of taxpayers and small government fighting moneyed interests and lobbyists, but all of the bills put back into play Thursday originally passed with large bipartisan majorities, and many dealt with fairly mundane subjects…

According to The World, Stitt’s bullying ploy seemed to work, as not long after the video hit the walls, one of his veto overrides failed.

This apparently made Stitt happier than foreclosing on a widow’s mortgage, but little did he know the Legislature had a fun little surprise payback planned: they held a vote to remove Allie Friesen — the embattled Stitt loyalist and unlicensed therapist who was put in charge of the Department of Mental Health and was promptly able to lose $43-million or so.

I guess losing one of his favorite in-over-their-head agency yes-thems in response to his political threats really hurt Kevin Stitt’s woke, fragile feelings.

As a result, he turned to one of the party’s favorite coping mechanisms — projection — and accused lawmakers of doing the one thing he does best: making major policy decisions based entirely on how much it punished his enemies, and how favorably it benefits him, his friends, and his extended circle of well-connected cronies and colleagues.

Specifically, Stitt claimed that the Legislature removed Friesen not because of all the negative headlines she and the agency have generated over the past 18 months, but because it will benefit the spouses of some lawmakers — specifically State Senator Paul Rosino and State Representative Josh West.

Via The World:

SCR 12, Stitt said in a statement, was another politically motivated "witch hunt." He insinuated that Rosino, as chairman of the committee overseeing the agency, was "trying to help his wife avoid responsibility" for the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services' financial problems.

Rosino told the Senate late Thursday that his wife, Donna Rosino, is a "part-time, low-level" employee of the Department of Mental Health who had nothing to do with the agency's problems.

Yikes. What a rude way to throw your wife under the bus! He obviously didn’t marry her for her career ambitions, huh?

“Don’t worry, Kevin. There’s no possible way my wife can benefit from this. She’s just a low-level, meaningless employee! Her work is basically worthless!”

Seriously, what is Rosino doing here? Is he trying to address accusations, or simply trying to avoid getting laid for the next three months? If he leaves a few more statements like that, we’re going to see Paul show up on the “Are We Married To The Same Asshole?” Facebook page.

Anyway, based on Stitt’s hiring agency hiring practices, “a part-time low-level employee” seems like the perfect next fit to lead the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health, so I kind see why some people think Rossino is doing all this to help his wife’s career. 

According to Stitt, the other conspiratorial spouse is the wife of Josh West — a.k.a. one of the chiseled-jawed lawmakers in need of a makeover. 

According to The World, Stitt said West and Rosino "need to first answer what they stand to gain" from Friesen's removal.

"What conflicts of interest are they trying to hide?" Stitt asked.

West's wife, Elizabeth West, is a licensed professional counselor who formerly worked for Grand Mental Health, a provider that is at odds with the Department of Mental Health and the Governor. She is now in private practice.

Yep, Josh West’s wife is a licensed professional counselor. I try to avoid giving unsolicited career advice, but if she wants to lead the Mental Health Department someday, she’ll first need to let her license expire and not tell anyone:

As I mentioned earlier, Stitt’s as world-famous as Swadley’s BBQ when it comes to making policy decisions based on how they help his friends, so his claiming lawmakers fired Friesen solely to help their spouse's career is drenched in projection and hypocrisy.

It’s like the pot calling the kettle black, or Stitt’s belly button calling his eyebrow hairy!

Obviously, the Senate didn’t like Stitt’s veiled accusation.

As a result, State Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton — a man who helped lead the effort to sabotage the Oklahoma citizen petition process and take power away from citizens — issued this statement admonishing the Governor and calling the personal attack “beneath the dignity of the office.”

Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, today released the following statement after Governor Kevin Stitt attacked Senator Paul Rosino’s spouse in a media statement earlier today.

“Governor Stitt has crossed a line,” Pro Tem Paxton said. “His recent attempt to smear the good name of Senator Rosino’s wife is not just petty—it’s disgraceful. Senator Rosino’s wife is a part-time administrative employee. Instead of attacking a public servant’s spouse, the governor should be addressing the real problem—his own failed appointee.

This isn’t an isolated failure—it’s part of a pattern. The executive branch continues to produce multimillion-dollar disasters that are routinely dumped in the Legislature’s lap to clean up. The Legislature entrusted this governor with more control of this agency, and he has wrecked it in record time…

For Governor Stitt to retaliate by targeting a Senator’s spouse is beneath the dignity of his office.”

That’s cool. Know what else is beneath the dignity of both the Governor's and Senate Pro Tem’s office?

Destroying the constitutional rights of citizens to self-govern by applying cumbersome, arbitrary guidelines to the citizen petition process, making it virtually impossible to get a state question on the ballot!

For some reason, you don’t see Stitt, West or Paxton issuing Facebook videos, announcements and pearl clutching statements about that citizen fuck job, do you? 

It’s almost like they want us to forget that they worked together to hijack citizens' rights, and instead let everyone focus on how petty, immature, and – in the case of Stitt – how politically dumb they are.  

With all the headlines Veto-A-Thon 2025 and the resulting personal and political squabbling have gathered, I guess we should congratulate Stitt, the lawmakers, and even the low-level wives who for some reason love them, for a job well done. 

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.