QUOTE
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Maine Democrats take aim at Bush
By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
AUGUSTA — The Maine Democratic Party is calling for a congressional investigation into allegations that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" and urging Congress "to initiate impeachment proceedings against them" if warranted. The move came Saturday when the biennial Democratic State Convention, at the close of a two-day meeting at the Augusta Civic Center, approved a resolution urging the Legislature and Maine's congressional delegation to demand an investigation of Bush and Cheney by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The vote, which had been awaited since the start of the convention Friday, was somewhat anticlimactic because it came so late in the convention that a few hundred delegates had already left. Workers were removing campaign signs from the hall when the resolution passed on a voice vote.
The discussion preceding the vote focused on how the resolution should be worded, not on the merits of impeachment. The resolution accuses the Bush administration of withholding information during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, allowing the torture of detainees and illegally "spying on Americans," among other allegations.
The vote followed recent calls for impeachment by local and regional Democratic committees in South Portland and in Kennebec, Hancock and Waldo counties. The compromise resolution, which engendered no detectable opposition, cites the South Portland resolution in detail, but is less severe.
"Mission accomplished," Richard Rottkov, who chairs the South Portland Democratic City Committee, said after the resolution passed. "This will send a message that we, as Mainers and as Americans, are not going to be weak. We're going to be strong."
Shortly before the vote, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, the convention's keynote speaker, reiterated his push to have Congress censure, rather than impeach, Bush for the warrantless surveillance of Americans. He said Democrats must express bold ideas boldly to win broad public support, and he called for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
"I'm not sure it's appropriate and helpful for us to go through an impeachment of the president," Feingold told the convention, although he said Bush's actions are "right in the strike zone of what the founding fathers meant" when they said a president can be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Insisting that Bush wiretapped Americans and then misled the American people about the existence and scope of that program, Feingold said Bush "has shown disrespect for the law of this nation and the Constitution." Congress should censure Bush, Feingold said, because if it fails to do so, the administration "will succeed in pushing us away any time the president gets caught with one of these abuses of power."
The convention refused to include a censure plank in the party platform that it finally adopted Saturday after hours of debate on other issues. The platform summarizes the party's principles, but it is largely symbolic because Democratic political candidates are not bound by it.
Although wrangling about the platform continued off and on throughout the day, the closing day of the convention also featured speeches by the two Democratic candidates who are fighting for the right to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe in November, as well as both Democratic candidates for the party's gubernatorial nomination.
Gov. John Baldacci, who is being challenged by Christopher Miller of Gray in that primary, listed a litany of accomplishments in his speech to the convention. He said employment is up in Maine, the state's population is growing, access to health insurance has been expanded and state government has balanced its budget in tough times without raising sales or income taxes.
Baldacci said Maine has moved aggressively to protect land from development and state government is on a sound financial footing, as reaffirmed by all three New York bond rating agencies. Yet he said the "doom-and-gloom Republicans" refuse to acknowledge such progress, insisting instead that "Maine is failing and faltering," despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
The governor, who appealed Saturday for a second term to make Maine's future "better and brighter," promised to create more than 25,000 new jobs in Maine in the next five years, provide "universal access to health care for Maine citizens" and build "educational opportunities" for Mainers.
Miller, an advocate of alternative energy and conservation who has said publicly he does not expect to defeat Baldacci in the June 13 primary, told the convention Maine must "prepare for the end of cheap energy" and wean itself from its reliance on increasingly scarce fossil fuels by 2020. Maine needs "a low-energy, no-growth economy," he said.
In an unusual presentation that combined a live speech with a satirical skit that featured on-stage actors and a video, Miller said society is "depending on resources that are harder and harder to get" and the looming crisis will be so severe that "this is not a problem we can grow our way out of."
Three Republicans - David Emery of Tenants Harbor, Peter Mills of Cornville and Chandler Woodcock of Farmington - are vying for the right to take on Baldacci on Nov. 7. Green Independent candidate Patricia LaMarche and several independents also hope to unseat Baldacci in the fall.
Julie O'Brien, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, could not be reached for comment Saturday on the impeachment vote. O'Brien said earlier in the week that such a vote, if it occurred, would reinforce the fact that the Democratic Party is "out to get Bush."
Maine Democrats take aim at Bush
By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
AUGUSTA — The Maine Democratic Party is calling for a congressional investigation into allegations that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" and urging Congress "to initiate impeachment proceedings against them" if warranted. The move came Saturday when the biennial Democratic State Convention, at the close of a two-day meeting at the Augusta Civic Center, approved a resolution urging the Legislature and Maine's congressional delegation to demand an investigation of Bush and Cheney by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The vote, which had been awaited since the start of the convention Friday, was somewhat anticlimactic because it came so late in the convention that a few hundred delegates had already left. Workers were removing campaign signs from the hall when the resolution passed on a voice vote.
The discussion preceding the vote focused on how the resolution should be worded, not on the merits of impeachment. The resolution accuses the Bush administration of withholding information during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, allowing the torture of detainees and illegally "spying on Americans," among other allegations.
The vote followed recent calls for impeachment by local and regional Democratic committees in South Portland and in Kennebec, Hancock and Waldo counties. The compromise resolution, which engendered no detectable opposition, cites the South Portland resolution in detail, but is less severe.
"Mission accomplished," Richard Rottkov, who chairs the South Portland Democratic City Committee, said after the resolution passed. "This will send a message that we, as Mainers and as Americans, are not going to be weak. We're going to be strong."
Shortly before the vote, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, the convention's keynote speaker, reiterated his push to have Congress censure, rather than impeach, Bush for the warrantless surveillance of Americans. He said Democrats must express bold ideas boldly to win broad public support, and he called for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
"I'm not sure it's appropriate and helpful for us to go through an impeachment of the president," Feingold told the convention, although he said Bush's actions are "right in the strike zone of what the founding fathers meant" when they said a president can be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Insisting that Bush wiretapped Americans and then misled the American people about the existence and scope of that program, Feingold said Bush "has shown disrespect for the law of this nation and the Constitution." Congress should censure Bush, Feingold said, because if it fails to do so, the administration "will succeed in pushing us away any time the president gets caught with one of these abuses of power."
The convention refused to include a censure plank in the party platform that it finally adopted Saturday after hours of debate on other issues. The platform summarizes the party's principles, but it is largely symbolic because Democratic political candidates are not bound by it.
Although wrangling about the platform continued off and on throughout the day, the closing day of the convention also featured speeches by the two Democratic candidates who are fighting for the right to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe in November, as well as both Democratic candidates for the party's gubernatorial nomination.
Gov. John Baldacci, who is being challenged by Christopher Miller of Gray in that primary, listed a litany of accomplishments in his speech to the convention. He said employment is up in Maine, the state's population is growing, access to health insurance has been expanded and state government has balanced its budget in tough times without raising sales or income taxes.
Baldacci said Maine has moved aggressively to protect land from development and state government is on a sound financial footing, as reaffirmed by all three New York bond rating agencies. Yet he said the "doom-and-gloom Republicans" refuse to acknowledge such progress, insisting instead that "Maine is failing and faltering," despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
The governor, who appealed Saturday for a second term to make Maine's future "better and brighter," promised to create more than 25,000 new jobs in Maine in the next five years, provide "universal access to health care for Maine citizens" and build "educational opportunities" for Mainers.
Miller, an advocate of alternative energy and conservation who has said publicly he does not expect to defeat Baldacci in the June 13 primary, told the convention Maine must "prepare for the end of cheap energy" and wean itself from its reliance on increasingly scarce fossil fuels by 2020. Maine needs "a low-energy, no-growth economy," he said.
In an unusual presentation that combined a live speech with a satirical skit that featured on-stage actors and a video, Miller said society is "depending on resources that are harder and harder to get" and the looming crisis will be so severe that "this is not a problem we can grow our way out of."
Three Republicans - David Emery of Tenants Harbor, Peter Mills of Cornville and Chandler Woodcock of Farmington - are vying for the right to take on Baldacci on Nov. 7. Green Independent candidate Patricia LaMarche and several independents also hope to unseat Baldacci in the fall.
Julie O'Brien, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, could not be reached for comment Saturday on the impeachment vote. O'Brien said earlier in the week that such a vote, if it occurred, would reinforce the fact that the Democratic Party is "out to get Bush."