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Last spring, the three members of Vermont's Washington delegation -- Senators Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders, and Congressman Peter Welch -- stood together when the Vermont state senate voted to impeach Bush and asked Vermonters to have patience. There were ongoing investigations, and we must let these investigations continue, they said.
“People are expressing broad outrage about this president’s handling of the war, his treatment of civil liberties, and the use of bogus intelligence, and there is a lot of common ground here on holding the president and vice president accountable. The major question is the best way to make that happen.”Welch said the current investigations on everything from the war to the firing of U.S. attorneys are potentially the beginning of further action, not the end. He said the current probes into the Bush administration are akin to the congressional investigations into the Nixon administration.
“Those investigations weren’t the end, but the beginning of the end and brought out the facts that led to articles of impeachment,” said Welch. “It didn’t begin with filing articles of impeachment. My fundamental concern is ending this war.”
Democrats need to use these investigations as a way to chip away at Bush’s support in the GOP, and convince Republicans that the administration needs to be held accountable, Welch said. (From the Vermont Guardian website.)
Now, Leahy is working with Harry Reid to push through this bill with retroactive immunity for the telecommunications, thereby undermining the very investigations that we Vermonters were promised. That's how craven and irresponsible this Democratic Congress has become. Unlike the days of Nixon, when the Democrats actually had a backbone, this Congress will do anything to appease George Bush and their own corporate sponsors. What a disgrace.
