From a village green…
on Mar 7, 2006 at 4:45 pm
About 12 miles outside of Brattleboro, Vt., there sits in serene isolation at the foot of a little mountain the wee town of Newfane, founded in 1761 — 26 years before the Constitution was written. Local promoters say the community of 1,680-some citizens has one recommended place to eat — the Four Columns Inn — and one recommended place to stay — the Four Columns Inn, “tucked away on a tranquil village green…”.
The town’s website points out that Newfane sits in the geographic center of a collection of towns with such names as Townshend, Dummerston and Wardsboro, and it adds wryly: “There isn’t even the slightest suggetion that one can necessarily travel directly from one town to the next…”
But after Tuesday, Newfane — less isolated, and perhaps less serene — was on the national news map. Begining at 9 a.m., Newfane took part in that venerated New England exercise in direct democracy — the town meeting — and sent word of its displeasure to Washington, D.C.
By a paper ballot vote of 121 to 29, according to news accounts, the town meeting approved the last item of scheduled business on the agenda, Article 29.
That item read (verbatim):
“ARTICLE 29: We the voters of Newfane would like Town Meeting, March 2006, to consider the following resolution:
“Whereas George W. Bush has:
“1. Misled the nation about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction;
“2. Misled the nation about ties between Iraq and Al Quaeda;
“3. Used these falsehoods to lead our nation into war unsupported by international law;
“4. Not told the truth about American policy with respect to the use of torture; and
“5. Has directed the government to engage in domestic spying, in direct contravention of U.S. law.
“Therefore, the voters of the town of Newfane ask that our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives file articles of impeachment to remove him from office.”
Vermont’s only Representative is the Independent Bernie Sanders, as much a manverick in the House as Newfane is in Windham County, Vermont.
Of course, with Republicans in control of the House, the Newfane resolution is almost certainly doomed. Still, the town’s website may now have another entry for its promotional category, “goings-on in southern Vermont.”
(UPDATE: A helpful reader points out that three other southern Vermont towns, all near Newfane, also approved impeachment resolutions on Tuesday. Here is a story from the Rutland, Vt., Herald describing those actions. Another reader suggests [see attached] a recollection of the “Hartford Convention.” Here is a summary of that interesting historical event.)
(COMMENT: For those readers wondering what this has to do with the Supreme Court, it should be noted that the blog’s range of interest includes other topics that bear on the functioning of the constitutional order. There are rising murmurs in Washington and around the country about the impeachment question — see, for example, Harold Meyerson’s column, here, in the Washington Post.)
