One of these quotes is not like the others. From The Times Argus:

As he has in the past, the (Vermont) Republican governor (Jim Douglas) declined to stake out a position on whether the war in Iraq was a mistake.

“I really don’t see the value in looking backward. I would rather look forward,” he said. “I don’t think there is much point to second-guessing the policy decisions of the past.”

Some other viewpoints:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana

Liberty without learning is always in peril
John F. Kennedy

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
George Bernard Shaw

No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar.
Donald Foster

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Confucius

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce

Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
Cato the Elder, from Plutarch, Lives

The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.
William Faulkner

I kept the poll open an extra day (because I was too busy to mess with it), so here are the results:

On the one hand, the poll is overwhelmingly in favor of the Vermont Legislature initiating impeachment proceedings as per the US House rules. On the other hand, unlike our other poll on Democratic Presidential Primary candidates, hardly anyone felt moved enough to actually vote. Are the results muted by a lack of enthusisam? What do you think?

On today’s broadcast of ABC’s Sunday morning “news” program This Week, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) — who was recently selected GMD readers’ favorite Presedential hopeful — dropped a political bombshell on the public (and an unsuspecting Sen. Bill Frist, also on the program) by announcing he will formally introduce a motion in the Senate calling for the censure of President Bush over the NSA wiretapping matter (a clip of the appearence can be found here).

Although Frist pledged to use his power to keep the motion from seeing the light of day, it’s still agreat move because, as Georgia10 at DailyKos puts it:

The most obvious and immediate benefit of Feingold’s statement is that it keeps Bush’s illegal spying in the news.  While the media has declared accountability dead after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted not to investigate the program, Feingold’s motion ratchets up the heat and keeps the scandal alive.

It seems obvious to folks who frequent this board that Bush’s blatantly illegal conduct merits at least this action. Here’s Feingold:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So if you’re so convinced that the President has broken the law, why not file an article of impeachment?

FEINGOLD: Well, you know, that’s an option we could look at, if somebody thought that was a really good idea. There are other options out there. In fact, this conduct is right in the strike zone — even though the Founding Fathers didn’t have strike zones, they didn’t have baseball — but it is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors.

“We, as a Congress, have to stand up to a president who acts like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were repealed on Sept 11, [2001],”

In fact, a glance to the left side of the front page will remind you that Vermonters would like to see a far more definitive reaction, but anything that causes Sen Frist to get all twisted up and flustered has got to be good.

Frist:

“Russ is just wrong, he is flat wrong, he is dead wrong,”

Frist called the censure attempt “political” and a “terrible, terrible signal” to enemies of the U.S. abroad.

Will a successful censure movement take the wind out of the impeachment movement? I doubt it. Impeachment promoters will simply see this as gravy if it passes (and again, the motion actually seeing the Senate floor seems like an outside shot, at this point), and if it doesn’t pass, they’ll just get more riled up and determined.

I suppose it’s possible that if this censure notion were to become a much bigger deal than I think it will, it could end up “competing” with impeachment. But I seriously don’t see that happening. What do you folks think?

Two quick updates:

First: Speaker Gaye Symington invites you to her Town Meetings on Friday, March 10 at 6pm in Rutland (Bardwell House located at 142 Merchants Row#1)and Saturday, March 11 at 1pm in Bennington (Bennington Free Library). It is fantastic that she is doing this, and a good turn out will help Dems keep control of the debate on Health Care (and other issues), and may encourage her to do more such events — particularly after the session concludes. Let’s turn out and support this initiative! For more information or questions, email speaker@leg.state.vt.us

Second: A new front page poll on Vermont-initiated impeachment is now up, and will be up until Saturday. Check out Freyne’s column on the issue and rush back to vote! Spread the word!

[Im taking the unusual step of promoting a post from another thread as a front page diary, because it’s a Town Meeting news bit. This was posted by user Ed, pesumably the Ed in the quote below, but I dunno…]

In Town Meetings today, voters in Brattleboro, Marlboro, Halifax, Guilford, Dummerston and Putney adopted a resolution calling for legislative action to “address significant gaps in the current Plan to be used in a nuclear emergency”. The vote in favor of the resolution was 84% (eighty-four %) in Brattleboro, unanimous in Guilford, and nearly unanimous in the four other towns.

“The news that excessive vibrations in a steam line Saturday caused problems on the very first day of Entergy Nuclear’s Vermont Yankee power increase added to apprehension people already have about the evacuation plan”, according to Ed Anthes, a member of Nuclear Free Vermont by 2012. “The delay in notifying the public about the problem also raised concerns.”

Nuclear Free Vermont by 2012, the local grass roots activist organization that sponsored previous resolutions in 2002, 2003, and 2004, initiated the current campaign.

“In the years since the 9/11 attacks emphasized the need for workable evacuation plans, we have worked with area Selectboards, state legislators and emergency management personnel in an effort to address severe deficiencies in the plans”, said Ed Anthes, of the group. “This vote will show the state legislature and Vermont Emergency Management that people in the evacuation zone want improvements now.”

As Newfane, Dummerston, Putney and Marlboro Town Meetings all approve motions asking US Representative Bernie Sanders to present Articles Of Impeachment on the House floor, Bernie sez:

given the reality that the Republicans control the House and the Senate, “it would be impractical to talk about impeachment.”

He added that “all of our energy must go into the November elections with the goal of ending Republican control of the House and Senate.”

How does this effect the grassroots surge we’re seeing? Discuss! C’mon, you know you wanna…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

A high-profile Senator wants to run for executive office. Despite charges of elitism and being not politically consistent, the candidate seems to be running strong. The candidate runs largely on the strength of their pre-political “story,” which includes numerous accolades and awards for leadership, merit and success against the odds.

When focusing on the issues seems not to be enough, the opposition tries something different. They pull out (a) person(s) from decades past to undercut the candidate’s “story.” (A) Person(s) that have some intimate connection to the candidate’s personal narrative. The(se) person(s) claim that the candidate did not deserve the accolades and awards. That the candidate is a phony. Simply a ladder-climber. At the same time, the candidate’s “Americanism” is called into question. Despite testimony over the years to the candidate’s qualifications, the hits take a toll. The candidate loses.

And although the opposition Party claims to have played no part in the personal attacks, the fingerprints are there, and everybody knows the reality.

So, am I talking about Senator John Kerry or Senator Hinda Miller? The 2004 race for President or the 2006 Burlington mayor’s race?

Sure, there are differences. Mainly that in one election, the attackers and the attackees are not all that far apart on most issues, while in the other they were diametrically opposed in most ways. Which is worse? You tell me.

There’s been a lot of talk about Martha Rainville hiring the Swift Boat team to run her campaign’s media, and a lot of folks saying that this sort of campaigning wont fly in Vermont (remember when Susan Sweetser tried to dig up dirt on Bernie by calling his ex-wife? That didn’t work out so well for her…).

I guess we’ll know soon enough. You know the Rainville campaign is watching.

UPDATE: Yup. Dirty politics triumph again. The saddest part is that Kiss may have been able to win this outright without the Swift Boat tactics. Of course, we’ll never really know, will we?

…and now with this notion that negative campaigns dont work in Vermont firmly and finally put to rest, hold onto your seats, cuz 2006 is gonna get U-G-L-Y.

A little of whats going on to watch in the Vermont blogosphere of late.

Baruth has a spot-on piece from a few days back discussing the myth that Vermont is a progressive paradise and the dangerous complacency that notion can breed on the left. Required reading for sure.

In the Burlington mayor’s race, PoliticsVT reports that the recent spate of anti-Hinda Miller press bits are part of an organized attack campaign by the Progressive Party and the Kiss campaign. Of course, anytime the Progs get criticized, it’s like kicking a hornet’s nest, so the comments are flying over there. (Of course if the Dems reacted the same way to criticism, I might get a few more comments around here!)

Nat Kinney (Vermonters First) has coverage of Moretown’s organizing against the Town Meeting parental notification items we covered here a couple weeks back.

Also at Vermonters First, aq discusses the fracas around his rebuffed attempt to ask questions at the Governor’s press conference, and Douglas’s staff’s efforts to marginalize him. The Administration will try to make it all about Quinn himself, while Adam will try to make it about the Governor. Since he’s got a high profile staff, you’ve got to give the advantage to Douglas, but Adam is finding some unexpected support from the right (at least lukewarm support), so stay tuned if you like your politics a bit serialized. Good luck, aq.

Anything else worth sharing? Comment away…

At today’s (March 4) Democratic State Committee meeting, representatives from thr Rutland County Democrats reported on their recent resolution calling for the impeachmnet of president Bush. Also discussed at the meeting was the wording of the US House of Representatives official rules allowing a state legislature to initiate the formal impeachment process on the US House floor. Here’s a diary from yesterday with details of how this could play out.

It was decided that most (if not all) of the County Committees would call special “emergency” sessions on the matter, ideally leading to an emergency State Committee meeting — all with the goal of encouraging the Vermont Legislature (no Governor Douglas approval needed) to bring the matter of Impeachment before the US House. From all accounts, the County Chairs in attendence were quite enthusiastic.

I wasn’t at the meeting, but I’m going to try and contact some of the key players who were in attendence to post a first-person diary. In the meantime, please discuss (especially if you were there and can provide some details). The national blogosphere is already talking it up.

Hold on to your hats, folks. This could end up being quite a ride!

From the AP:

The [health care reform] bill passed by a 77-58 vote despite determined GOP efforts to thwart it, including a walkout aimed at grinding consideration to a halt. That didn’t work, either, and Republicans eventually returned to the chamber for the rest of the debate.

The irony of the determined opposition was that the Democratic majority believes that it moved a great deal to accommodate the concerns that prompted Gov. James Douglas to veto last year’s version

Hmmm…sounds familiar somehow……Wait, don’t tell me……

What could I be thinking of…?

Virginia GOP Threatens Government Shutdown

No, no, before that…

Oh yeahhhh! That guy!

It all takes me back to Newt’s 1995 Federal government shutdown. And that went so well for the Republicans.

It’s just like the so-called “pro-choice” Republicans in Washington who helped put Alito on the bench and invite an immediate threat to the right to choose. For whatever reason, regardless of how they define themselves around election-time, Republicans — even Vermont Republicans –are becoming more and more monolithic, following the National Party line and the National Party playbook.

Now before someone points out the Texas redistricting issue and the Democrats’ self-imposed exile from the state, I’d caution you to remember that they were doing the only thing they could to prevent an illegal power grab done in concert with a corrupt federal government through an indicted and disgraced former House majority leader.

With Catamount Health? The Washington shutdown? Virginia? They simply weren’t getting their way in the same ol-same ol, time-honored Democratic process. The integrity of our Democracy wasn’t at stake. Only the Republican agenda (although many on the other side like to confuse the two…).