Green Mountain Daily — Today’s lead editorial in the Brattleboro Reformer:
“Why not, Gaye?
Over the weekend, the Vermont Democratic State Committee voted to support efforts to petition the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
But Vermont House Speaker Gaye Symington has said that she is not interested in moving forward with impeachment. She believes there are too many other important things to be done in the limited amount of time left in this legislative session.
We think she’s wrong.”
To read more, go here.
So that makes the Vermont Guardian and the Brattleboro Reformer supporting the joint resolution on investigations into impeachment.
Who’s next?
Three newspapers. The Commons (an independent Windham County newspaper, not to be confused with the Vermont Commons, published this editorial on March 1:
Vermont’s “Boca di Verità ”
In Rome there is a large round stone called the Boca di Verità (“Mouth of Truth”) carved as a face, with a gaping hole for a mouth. Legend has it that if a disingenuous person puts his or her hand into the mouth, the Boca will bite it off.
Along those same lines, there is resolution — introduced in the Vermont House and at press time languishing in the Judiciary Committee, where it was expected to stay — that has the power to reveal those who actually believe in the Constitution, and those who only say they do.
Vermont’s resolution to impeach the president was introduced by more than 20 co-sponsors, but House Judiciary Chairman Bill Lippert has said he’s taking his cues from the Democrats in Washington, who are also stalling on the issue of impeachment, perhaps waiting for it to die a quiet death. Consequently, the measure is unlikely to see the light of a House floor debate. House Speaker Gaye Symington claims she has no say in the matter, and notes that the Legislature has an awful lot of important business to attend to.
Vermont’s legislators apparently are hoping that the impeachment resolution will die a quiet death, leaving their hands unbloodied, but that’s unlikely. Impeachment resolutions have been warned in 23 towns — an act that is far more than symbolism.
Even as the nation and the media turn toward the 2008 elections, it’s important to remember that Bush launched an illegal war — one in which Vermont has paid a heavy price with the highest per-capita number of troops killed; this president has established an international network of illegal prisons where we torture suspects, violating a long list of international treaties; he is wiretapping U.S. citizens and searching our mail, all without warrants. Left to his own devices for the next two years, he is poised to lead this country in a continuing downward spiral by increasing U.S. forces in Iraq, starting a new war with Iran, and further eroding our civil liberties.
Vermonters’ call for impeachment it is well within their rights, as outlined by Thomas Jefferson; it is the duty of their elected representatives to listen — and respond. To do otherwise is to ignore the impeachable crimes of the Bush administration and the Constitution our lawmakers are sworn to uphold.
For that, the Boca di Verita would have their hands.