House to Vermonters: Piss Off!

We got walloped, 87 to 60, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The people were still the big winners, though. Even though we did not get what we wanted, our voices were heard. Nearly 400 Vermonters showed up at the State House. The usual groups of blue haired ladies and grey-haired men from the tourist busses were simply overwhelmed by us. The school groups gawked in amazement. I told one kid that this was supposed to be a democracy and “ask your teacher what she thinks about all of this.” I went with two of the Burlington Green town committee members. There were two other members there, too. One of my friends sat in our State Rep’s (Bill Keogh’s) seat in the well of the House chamber during the debate with Gaye Symington. My friend Sabra Ewing - also a Mountain School alum from Vershire - was there. I used to live there before I moved to Burlington. That town had voted for impeachment on March 6th. Check out the Brattleboro Reformer story and you’ll see photo of the Vermont 400 in the House chamber.

Consituents can fill out this little sheet requesting an appointment with their state rep. My friend and I did that – the pages deliver them. “Meet me by the cafeteria at Noon.” Well, all 300+ of us were still seated in the well of the House chamber at 12:25 p.m., listening to Symington’s lame excuses and Shumlin’s pathetic thank you. So, we break for lunch, but before that, Liza Earle told us that the most of the notes requesting meetings with our reps had not been delivered to the members, so they would pick them up when they returned for the 1 o’clock session. We gotta be back by the 1:00 p.m. House session. I see Keogh at his desk. “Jay! I got your note at 10:45 a.m. Where were you at Noon?” We were still in here, I tell him - he knew that of course, but he was just putting me off (typical). He'd known where we were. It’s as if it was my fault. My friend and I told him how we felt about the upcoming vote. He just said to us he’d vote how he felt. That didn’t tell me much about his reasons, though. I knew he’d vote ‘no.’ He’s just one of the conservative Dems from our neighborhood. I am pleased that the other rep, Donovan, voted for the resolution. Keogh voted a loud NO when the voice vote came around after a meandering, boring debate.

Snarky Boy was there, though I did not see him. As usual, he has some, well, snarky comments.

Oh, the drama. Well, kind of. Hmm, on third thought, I could have just continued watching paint dry. It would have been just as fruitful and exciting as watching the all-too-predictable Dem slaughter of the grassroots this afternoon in the Statehouse. You gotta hand it to these Dems, they sure know how to stick it to their base, don’t they? In fact, if passion were one side of a magnet, the mainstream Dems would certainly be repelling it on the opposite side.

I was disappointed with the main sponsor of the resolution, Dave Zuckerman. He could have been more passionate and forceful about his reasons for presenting this motion, when asked by some Republican rep from Rutland. At the 11 a.m. session we had with Symington and Shumlin, there were some impassioned statements by the people - more eloquent than the during the house debate on the resolution.

But Symington should be pleased tonight. She did Leahy/Sanders/Welch’s bidding and got her minion fat, bald, white men reps to vote against it. (You could see their shiny heads from the balcony gallery.) The Bush supporting Dems. No principles. Deaf to the people’s wishes.