Peter Welch's Conscience Has Fallen Off the Deep End

Brattleboro Reformer - Welch takes impeachment movement to House floor

Welch's full speech & Dan DeWalt's response is below it -

May 15, 2007

"M. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks
and that my full statement be submitted for the record. I rise to
report on an effort in Vermont that honors the tradition of
Vermonters speaking out on issues of conscience.

"Vermonters take public service, political integrity, and citizen
involvement extremely seriously. This is a tradition that dates back
to our earliest days when Vermont became the first state to ban slavery.

"With rising alarm, Vermonters have watched abuse of power and a
disregard for checks and balances in Washington over the past six
years. Vermonters have such extraordinary concern, particularly with
the prosecution of the war in Iraq, that many are now calling for the
President and Vice President to be impeached.

"Impeachment is an extreme position, but it reflects the collective
judgment of many Vermonters that believe it is necessary to alleviate
extreme circumstances. M. Speaker, I don't believe impeachment is the
answer, but I endorse the indictment of the policies of the current
Administration.

"What this nation has experienced over the past six years is staggering:

• A war in it's fifth year that was justified based on false
intelligence;
• The politicization of our nation's top law enforcement agency;
• The cavalier disregard for civil liberties and constitutional
protections;
• No bid war contracts to well-connected friends;
• The use of signing statements to disregard the law; and,
• The denial of habeas corpus for those in U.S. custody.

"The list could go on and on. These and other transgressions have
caused some Vermonters to rise up and promote the use of impeachment
to restore accountability and curb the abuse of power.

"This impeachment movement started last year in the town of Newfane,
with a population of just 1,700, by Dan DeWalt, a selectman on the
town board. After voting for their town clerk and tax collector, and
voting whether to fund a village sidewalk project and the local
school, the town then voted on a resolution for Congress to initiate
impeachment of the President.

"The initiative that started in this one small southern Vermont town
spread to 40 towns this past March voting to pass measures urging
impeachment. My own hometown of Hartland joined this call. And I've
spoken with my neighbors — farmers, teachers, doctors, and store
owners- about their vote. What they share is an outrage about the
conduct of this Administration and its prosecution of this
unconscionable war.

"Last month, the Vermont General Assembly took up the issue. On April
20, the Vermont State Senate voted 16-9 in favor of Congress
launching impeachment. While the Vermont House of Representatives
defeated the resolution on April 25, it received 60 supportive votes.
Nearly 400 Vermonters representing 102 of Vermont's 251 towns came to
the State House that day to voice their views.

"And this past Saturday, I held a town hall meeting in Hartford to
hear from 250 impeachment advocates for over two hours.

"I applaud these citizen activists who have acted in the Vermont
tradition of taking a principled stand on issues of conscience. They
raise valid concerns about the actions of this Administration and
actions allowed to go unchecked by the previous Congress. They are
right. The concerns they have are well founded.

"However, let me be clear: opinion is divided in Vermont about
whether impeachment is the right remedy... And whether it is the
right tactic. But what motivated this effort reflects a commonly
shared view that this Administration has abused its power and pursued
horribly misguided policies.

"M. Speaker, while I disagree impeachment is the remedy, I completely
share the goal, which is to restore honest and just leadership to our
government.

• Our oversight investigations have exposed the egregiously
substandard care for recovering soldiers at Walter Reed. We heard
about soldiers, still recovering from brain surgery, forced to wander
the grounds of Walter Reed to find the outpatient care they needed.

• Congressional oversight has documented unacceptable accounts of
political interference by the Bush Administration over sound global
warming science. As we face the greatest global environmental,
economic, and security challenge this world as ever faced, political
appointees with no scientific background were editing scientific
research with partisan pens.

• Our probes are uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse associated with
the war in Iraq on an unimaginable scale, including pallets of cash-
$12 billion in $100 bills- flown from the United States to Iraq and
distributed on the back of pick-up trucks.

• And through our oversight and subpoenas, we are vigorously seeking
to expose and investigate the peddling of faulty intelligence the
Administration presented in their case for war. We must demand to
know whether the Administration's active dissemination of bad
intelligence was premeditated with the intention of deceiving the
American people, or was it reckless and cavalier, done to justify a
decision to go to war that had already been made?

"At every corner, step by step, Congress is methodically peeling back
the layers of deception and deceit, holding this Administration
accountable. We must get the facts and follow the facts. And that is
exactly what is being done.

"M. Speaker, this pursuit of impeachment has consequences to real
lives and real people.

I measure every decision I make here in Congress based on whether it
will hasten or delay an end to this war. Nothing illustrates this
urgency more than a phone call I received before a recent trip to
Iraq. The call was from a mother in the town of Brattleboro who lost
her son in this terrible war. She so desired closure over her son's
death, that she asked to accompany me to Iraq so she could see where
her son had died. It was a stark reminder that there is no greater
challenge we face than ending this war.

"I also submit for the record a letter that was read at the Hartland
town meeting from Lisa Johnson of Essex Jct. about the death in Iraq
of her son Captain Pierre Piche'.

"I am proud of the Vermonters pushing for facts, prodding for
accountability, and demanding oversight.

"As I travel around the state, meeting with Vermonters, I also hear a
sense of optimism: it is the optimism that comes from Congress
restoring the checks and balances that had for too long been lost and
an optimism from seeing a Congress finally getting down to making
progress with new priorities and a new direction for this country.

"Thank you M. Speaker."

Dan DeWalt's response:

Welch's Citizen Appeasement Speech

Peter Welch spoke on the floor of the U.S. House today explaining to the Congress why Vermonters in ever greater numbers are calling for impeachment. While it is good for members of Congress and for those who watch C-Span to hear about our sentiments, a speech is a miserable substitute for action.

Congressman Welch wants to end this war yesterday he says, but he has thus far only voted to further fund it. Impeachment will divide the Congress and only prolong the war he says, but he cannot point to a single action of Congress that has taken one step to even slow the pace of the occupation.

Welch thanks impeachment activists and says that while he opposes impeachment, he supports the indictment that we make against the Bush administration. He can’t have it both ways. The prosecutor doesn’t thank the grand jury for their hard work, agree with their call for indictment, and then toss it in the trash on his way out of the courthouse. But that is exactly what Peter Welch is doing and some people will try to tell us that we should be grateful to him for doing it.

Impeachment is the only Constitutional tool that we have left in the toolbox that could actually block
this administration from furthering their reckless military stance. Impeachment is the only workable
remedy that could help to redeem us in the eyes of the rest of the world.

This Democratic Congress has betrayed us. They pull at some dried skin of a reeking onion, but
they refuse to investigate the rot that is spreading from its core. “Look, “ they say, “we snipped those brown edges of the skin, it’s a fine onion again. Aren’t we good cooks?” A mere 40 Senators could prevent any further funding of this war, providing only a way to pay for withdrawal, but there are not yet 40 Senators who are brave or principled enough to do so.

While Welch waits for the Republicans to magically join the Democratic war (non) strategy and then convince this President to change his mind, a handful of his colleagues have already called for impeachment investigations against Dick Cheney. It is sad that our Congressman is content with so little. It is as whimsical for him to think that he’s taking steps to end this war as it is for the President to think that he’s winning it.

Our Congressman is not yet convinced that we represent the views of an overwhelming number of
Vermonters. He will be disabused of this notion in the coming days and weeks. There will be petition and post card drives that will give notice of just how many we are.

We are fed up with vacuous leadership. We are fed up with excuses. We are above all fed up with mediocre rhetoric masquerading as substance. This is a call for civil obedience to the Constitution by those who have sworn to defend it. It may well be the last call before massive civil disobedience is seen as the only way left to get our government to become once again “for the people”.