Five Before Chaos

I had to meet a friend for lunch to day in Montpelier, and then sauntered over to the Statehouse to catch the impeachment proceedings in the House. It was defeated, 87-60. I’d like to offer a big thanks who stood up for accountability and voted for the resolution. Odum has the roll call at GMD here.

Yes, as others have noted, it was inspiring, and it truly was a case of democracy in action. But I left rather pissed.

The VT blogosphere was on hand… from who I could see, Norsehorse, Snarky Boy, GMD, Carpetbagger Report and yours truly were all there to report on the carnival. The house was packed, as you can see from the photo I took.



There were people of all kinds in the crowd on hand (over 300) to do that ‘democracy’ thing that seems to be in short supply lately. The Republican speeches were pretty pathetic, ranging from Tom Koch (Barre Town) keeping consistent and speaking out against it on procedural grounds, partisanship and everything but the kitchen sink. Not surprising, because that guy, when not trying to pass laws forbidding driving-while-flute-playing pretty much opposes anything good that ever gets presented, regardless of the issue. Another Repub whose name I didn’t catch acted as though the various misdeeds of Bushco were somehow still in doubt, then rehashed a bunch of statements from prominent Dems from almost ten years ago. Others just looked annoyed.

But the one that got me pissed more than anything was from a Democrat (once again, I didn’t get a name-if someone has these names please put something in the comments and I’ll revise) who gave the tired excuse of how the legislature had many other areas of important business to address, and didn’t have time for this. Wrong on two accounts…first off, the only ‘time’ taken was already in progress. Second, this has been one of the least productive legislatures that I can remember in recent memory. Other than avoiding confrontation with Douglas with a big bendover on issue after issue, I’m hard pressed to think of anything substantial to come out of the Statehouse this year, short of the resolution to end the war. Nothing involving healthcare. A meager proposal on property taxes. What are they spending so much time on? The bill to help small farmers process meat on-site so they can sell at markets and restaurants is a great bill, but is it a real time-stealer?

Although I was a bit disappointed, I didn’t think this was going to pass. House Speaker Gaye Symington, one of the more spineless speakers in recent memory (someone quipped ‘bad as he was, at least Walter Freed (R) got some things passed, fer Crissake’) has shown an astounding lack of leadership on the issue, as with most issues. This is the only explanation that makes sense, because it’s not like these people were going to face some harsh electoral consequences back home for supporting it. And I suspect they’re not going to face anything harsh for not supporting it either. Real leadership would have enabled it to happen beyond just the traditional lefty Dems, same with the “Death With Dignity” bill.

Admittedly, although I support it wholeheartedly, I’m not as impassioned as some are in regards to the impeachment thing, probably because I know better than to hope that Congressman Welch is going to ride in on his white horse and actually do something about it. Perhaps he’s too preoccupied with making friends in Washington and not making waves with Pelosi.

The larger issue here for me is the astounding lack of leadership from the Democrats in the Statehouse. They have the numbers to go on the offensive against Douglas, and don’t. Instead, we hear Ann Cummings talk about “sending the governor something he can sign.” Perhaps I wouldn’t be so astounded if they had a supermajority for 20 years and were just getting complacent and lazy. But that’s not the case. There is a serious leadership vaccuum in the Statehouse right now. Symington needs to go. The question is, who in the Dem party machine is going to be courageous enough to take that step and point it out?

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