Lessons Learned?

That was one of the questions yours truly put to Vermont House Speaker Gaye Symington [right] at her Friday bag-less "Brown-Bagger" with the Statehouse press.

Any lessons learned this week, Madame Speaker?

SYMINGTON: It confirmed for me that Vermonters pay attention to what’s going on in the world around them, and understand well, that policies that initiate at the federal level affect the choices we have on our plate in Vermont, even to the level of addressing property tax pressures and the kinds of budget pressures the Iraq War puts on us...

I don’t think there’s a difference of opinion in terms of our underlying anger, outrage at where our country’s been led under the leadership of President Bush.

As everyone knows, Speaker Symington had let it be known in no uncertain terms as recently as April 20, that the Vermont House was focusing on more important matters and would not have a floor debate on the Bush-Cheney Impeachment Resolution. Besides she opposed it.

PRESS: Now your reaction. It was the right thing to do?

SYMINGTON: Yes, I think it was the right thing to do. I was impressed by the process. I know people are disappointed in the outcome of the vote, but I think they felt heard....

I’ve written a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, indicating that while members differed as to whether now was the appropriate time to initiate impeachment, we are unified in our abhorrence of this Bush Administration and support for the work the current leadership is doing to hold them accountable.

Dear Speaker Pelosi

In the past week, the Vermont Legislature debated resolutions that urge Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Cheney.  The Senate passed such a resolution and the House rejected one. Despite reaching different conclusions about whether calling for impeachment is appropriate now, the Vermont Legislature is united in its outrage at the conduct of this Administration and its support of the work that the United States House of Representative, under your leadership, is currently undertaking to investigate the Administration’s activities.

Although I opposed the impeachment resolution, I am writing to express the deeply held feelings that many Vermonters share regarding the Bush-Cheney Administration. Over the course of this legislative session, the Vermont House has heard from hundreds of Vermonters who believe the actions of the Administration have been deceitful, immoral, and potentially criminal. This week, over 300 Vermonters gathered in the Statehouse to express their support  of impeaching the president and vice president. While I disagreed with their support of impeachment, I was moved by their passion for holding the Administration accountable.

As the Speaker of the Vermont House, I would like to convey the sentiments of these and thousands of other Vermonters who agree - regardless of their position on the impeachment issue - that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have done potentially irreparable damage to  our nation’s reputation, our standing in the international community, our civil liberties, and our core belief in the principles of representative democracy.

I would also like to convey my appreciation to you for the dozens of investigations into the conduct of this Administration that are currently underway in the U.S. House. Thanks to your  work, we are getting answers to questions the previous Congressional leadership refused to raise. We are learning about the Administration’s mismanagement of the Walter Reed Medical Center, about fabricated pre-war intelligence, and about a range of other issues that demand action and accountability. Please continue your work to investigate the Administration’s actions and hold them accountable.

Thank you again for your leadership.

Sincerely.

Gaye Symington
Speaker, Vermont House of Representatives

Nice letter, Madame Speaker.

Caught these folks on Burlington's Marketplace around the noon hour:

Comments

[Liane Allen]

I hate that this is being spun as "anger with the administration." That's the least of the elements feeding the need for impeachment. Even the idea that we've been lied into war isn't the issue.

The real issue is the subversion of the Constitution. Period.

Our Democratic form of government has been tossed into the paper shredder by an administration that has no interest in obeying any laws they find inconvenient. They wrap their law-breaking in a cloak of "protection," implying that the only ones we must fear are "outsiders," while they themselves slowly erode all of the freedoms that made us safe to begin with.

History is chock-full of examples in which the government has been the primary source of fear and oppression for the people of any given country. The founders worded our Constitution the way they did for a reason - they had personally lived through times in which an out-of-control government had oppressed the people, jailing, killing, and robbing them on the whim of those in power. The very same actions taken by our current administration - rescinding the right to a trial, search and seizure without warrant, jailing with out charges, providing unequal protection under the law (for example, exempting themselves via signing statements) - were the very abuses the founders sought to prevent.

Letting the administration get away with these acts, unpunished, sets a precedent for all future administrations, and leaves our democracy a hollowed out shell - a sort of national joke on the people by the powerful.

[Brattlerouser]

When all is said and done and the dust settles, we'll all see that Gaye Symington will go down on the wrong side of history. When generations look back and wonder why the Vermont House act on impeachment, they'll see that Symington went down as the enabler and NOT AS the careful and astute politican people claim her to be.

As for the big winners in all this, it certainly WASN'T our politicans. Let's face it, would either chamber brought the impeachment issue on themselves? Seriously folks, would they have done this without the suport of 40 + towns? NO WAY!

The big winners in all this were the ordinary Vermonters. Besides.... when was the last time the House gave Vermonters a standing ovation for their efforts? Don't tell me that wasn't inspring!

The people of Vermont ARE the heroes in all this. Although it didn't pass in the House, the fact remains impeachment is now no longer the "third rail" of political discussions.... and where else would this discussion start other than Vermont?

[sandy ward]

Her letter is exactly like Bush's expected veto on the war funding bill...they have learned to usurp the people.