There’s a story in the State Journal about Sen. Nass’s concern that legislative pages (mostly part-time pages and part-time students) are playing card games during working hours:
A Republican state senator is complaining about legislative pages using work time to play a card game that pits fascists against liberals trying to root out a “secret Hitler” — a game in which some versions swap the Hitler character for President Donald Trump.
Sen. Steve Nass, of Whitewater, complained to his Senate GOP colleagues Wednesday that both part-time and full-time page staff have during paid work time been playing “Secret Hitler,” a politically themed hidden identity card game from the same game designer who created the raunchy party game “Cards Against Humanity.”
In “Secret Hitler,” between five and 10 players are divided into two uneven teams: a larger team of liberals and a smaller team of fascists. One player is chosen as Secret Hitler. The fascists are aware of their leader’s identity and work to install him by tricking the liberals, who aren’t aware of his identity.
Via GOP state senator wants legislative pages to stop playing ‘Secret Hitler’ at work.
Sen. Nass wrote to his colleagues to complain about this, and the game was confiscated. Fair enough – people shouldn’t play cards at work. The story says that the chief clerk confiscated the cards, and that Nass wants a legislative human resources investigation.
A legislative human resources investigation is a waste of time. Nass is a longtime politician in the majority – he should ask to speak to those responsible, and make his point clear in a mentoring conversation. This is an opportunity for a leader to address matters directly without a lot of fuss. Nass is not a young man, and at his age he should be able to have a normal conversation with young men and women across a table.
(Realistically, he should also be able to speak more often on his own behalf without spokesman Mike Mikalsen.)
Now, I’m not a card-player, but for those so inclined, Amazon sells Secret Hitler and a Secret Trump card pack is hard-to-find but highly rated, as it even includes a “bonus Mike Pence card, suitable for use in case of impeachment or resignation.”