Democrats Against Impeachment A bridge too far even for Vermont.
BY JOHN MCCLAUGHRY Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
CONCORD, Vt.--George Will recently observed that the Democrats are so confident about their chances in 2008 that they are willing to "surrender to the tugging of groups to the left." In no place has that tugging been so urgent as in Vermont.
The Green Mountain State arguably has the most left-wing state legislature in the nation's modern history. The Senate is 23-7 Democratic, with two of the Republicans suffering identity confusion. The House has 93 Democrats, two independents, six hard-left Progressives and 49 embattled Republicans.
In mid-2006 Dan DeWalt, a selectman in the town of Newfane (population 680) launched a campaign to pass resolutions calling for President Bush to be impeached. He had his aim on March 6, 2007, "Town Meeting Day" in the state. To generate enthusiasm, he attracted anti-Bush activist Cindy Sheehan.
She came earlier this year and testified in front of the state Senate in support of a "get the troops out of Iraq" resolution--a resolution that had already been approved by the legislature. Nonetheless, her appearance helped push voters in 38 of the 40 towns that considered the impeachment resolution to approve it.
Mr. DeWalt's home county, Windham (except for its lightly populated mountain interior) is a hotbed of liberal causes. Gay marriage, socialized medicine and shutting down the state's only nuclear power plant are all popular there. One of its state senators, Jeannette White, sponsored the Sheehan appearance. The other, Peter Shumlin, is the ambitious Senate president pro tem and a favorite of the county's teeming left.
At an April 18 news conference, Mr. Shumlin and House Speaker Gaye Symington declared firmly that the legislature, deeply concerned about global warming, "did not have time to deal with impeachment." Mr. Shumlin did, however, offer his opinion that President Bush ought to be impeached. But he also threw up a host of excuses for why the legislature couldn't take up the issue. Mr. DeWalt continued to pressure him.
Realizing that he may need the support of the hyperactive Impeachment left in a future Democratic primary for governor, Mr. Shumlin relented. He waited for a day when the presiding officer of the Senate, Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, was out of state and then sprung into action. At 8:30 a.m. on April 20, Mr. Shumlin presented Mr. DeWalt's resolution to the Senate and whisked it through in five minutes without debate. The vote was 16-9, with three Democrats joining six Republicans in opposition.
The pressure then shifted to the House. Liberal Democratic Speaker Symington had steadfastly opposed considering an impeachment resolution, not only because of time pressures, but because she felt that the Democratic Congress should expose and correct the crimes of the president, rather than launching an impeachment process. After Mr. Shumlin's action, impeachment pressure mounted.
On April 25, the speaker presided over an extraordinary one-person public hearing before 200 impeachment activists in the House chamber. She was told that "the Confederacy has taken over--this is our Gettysburg"; that feckless Democrats had colluded with the President Bush after 9/11; and that "monsters are running the government." When she attempted to explain that she trusted the Democratic leaders in Congress to decide what to do, she was loudly hissed. An hour after the hearing, she convened the House to debate the impeachment resolution.
The lead sponsor was Progressive David Zuckerman of Burlington. He identified illegal wiretapping, abuse of the public trust and spreading misinformation on weapons of mass destruction as some of the high crimes and misdemeanors that justified impeachment. Others declared that the Bush administration was a "miasma of fascism," characterized by the "corrupt use of power." Mr. Bush and his gang were accused of subverting fundamental law, misusing funds, encroaching on legislative prerogatives, engaging in bribery, exercising arbitrary powers, naming unworthy appointees to high office, and blocking the appointment of worthy candidates for office.
Several Republicans, mobilized on short notice, argued that the resolution was exceptionally vague about just what President Bush had done to merit impeachment and that "costing the United States good will" in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was insufficient grounds for removing a president.
A few conscientious Democrats also spoke against the resolution, though generally noting their enormous distaste for anything associated with President Bush. After more than an hour of debate, the clerk called the roll. The House rejected the impeachment call by a vote of 60 to 87 (47 Republicans, 39 Democrats, and one independent voting against it).
So the passionate drive to get Vermont's legislature to be the first in the nation to call for impeaching the president came up short. And the credit for that goes to the 39 Democrats, some moderate but most of them liberal, who agreed with the very liberal congressional delegation of this state that this "metaphor for outrage" was not a good idea.
The Vermont Impeachment Carnival of 2007 is over. And to the credit of the people of the Green Mountain State, there is little residual bitterness. Vermonters have an abiding belief, nurtured in two centuries of town meetings, that every Vermonter deserves to be heard, and every cause deserves an open vote. The impeachment advocates got three cathartic moments--one when voters considered it on Town Meeting Day, another when the Senate, without debate, endorsed their cause and the third when the House, after intense debate, rejected it.
The impeachment activists got from their legislators what they felt they had a right to demand. They will continue to chafe at the thought of President Bush remaining in office. They will continue to denounce every real or imagined Bush enormity. But they will, almost certainly, do so with an appreciation of this state's civilized democratic process that allowed them to bring their concerns to the fore, and get a judgment from their legislators and fellow citizens.
Mr. McClaughry, president of the Ethan Allen Institute in Concord, Vt., has been moderator for the past 41 years of the Town of Kirby (population 500).
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