Franklin County favors impeachment; Greenfield only town in area to reject measure

[ Originally published on: Thursday, May 24, 2007 ]

Except in the case of Greenfield, where the Town Council voted it down, Franklin County town meetings with impeachment articles on their annual warrants have gone on record as calling for Congress to begin proceedings to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney.

The only remaining impeachment vote is scheduled for Montague, where representative town meeting is scheduled to take up the question on June 2.

With more than a dozen votes behind them calling for impeachment, organizers of the town-by-town campaigns are planning to meet with an aide to Rep. John Olver, D-Amherst, to call for the Congress to take up the issue, according to Les Patlove of Charlemont.

Voters have approved impeachment articles in Whately, Leverett, Ashfield, Shutesbury, Colrain, Buckland, Heath, Leyden as well as Warwick and Rowe, in some cases varying the text of their nonbinding resolutions.

''We're looking at the makeup of town meetings, where people came to vote on town business, as authentic a cross-section as you would get,'' said Patlove. ''It's a somewhat diverse group, and we're glad for that.''

Voters in many of the communities questioned whether it was appropriate to take up a national legislative issue on town meeting floor, but Patlove said the juxtaposition of the Iraqi war's expense with intensely tight town budgets drove home to many voters that there was a connection.

''Our towns are all strapped for money,'' he said. ''Our schools are getting fried. That hits home for people.''

According to the Northampton-based National Priorities Project, the cost of the Iraq war through September of this year amounts to $1.1 billion for Olver's Congressional district, over $110 million in Franklin County alone, according to its www.costofwar.com Web site.

On Saturday, the Democratic State Convention approved a resolution calling on Congress to impeach Bush and Cheney.

''People are pretty sick of the president and the war,'' said John E. Walsh, chairman of the state Democratic Committee. ''People don't see why we're there or how we are going to get out.''

The impeachment resolution also was passed in this year's town meetings in the Berkshire County communities of Great Barrington, Lanesboro and Stockbridge, and was approved last year in Northampton and Amherst. Impeachment resolutions have also been approved by 40 towns in Vermont.

The article failed in the Berkshire County towns of Lee and Cheshire, as well as last week in Greenfield.

Greenfield Town Council, after receiving a petition from 130 voters, rejected the article by an 8-3 vote, saying that the matter should be taken up by Congress and that the council had more pressing matters, such as trying to balance the town budget -- arguments that proponents pointed to as ironic.

''As caretakers of democracy and guarantors of free speech, they flunked miserably,'' said Edward Evans, who organized the petition drive and said he may pursue a ballot question to bring the issue directly to the people. ''To say it was frivolous … that was a slap in the face all the way around. They just bamboozled us, and we didn't have a chance to reply because they wouldn't let us speak.''

Because the 67 Senate votes needed to remove the president and vice president ''aren't there right now,'' Olver said in a statement Tuesday, the Democratic leadership has taken impeachment off the agenda for now. ''But the fight and maneuvering to effect policy changes is still an urgent matter for everyone who opposes the president.''

Olver's statement said, ''I understand the mistrust of, and outrage at, President Bush and his administration. I feel it, too. I want President Bush and his domestic and international policies removed from the White House, but how to accomplish that in the shortest amount of time possible is a complex challenge.

''Congress must effectively confront the president with its constitutionally co-equal authority, stop him where he is wrong, and force him to be accountable for his actions. Hopefully, enough information will come to light during this process to turn those who support him out or away from public office.''

Olver added, ''While I continue to support investigations to hold the Bush administration accountable for its conduct prior to the war in Iraq, it is my belief that the 110th Congress should use its power to impose limits on the president rather than initiate an impeachment process at the expense of other legislative opportunities that have a greater chance of success.''

You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

 

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