Activist files Bush pardon petition
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Kurt Daims presents Brattleboro Town Clerk Annette Cappy with a petition to pardon President George Bush on Monday. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff - Published: January 13, 2009
BRATTLEBORO — A petition drive to have town meeting voters weigh in on whether to issue a pardon to President George Bush in the event that he or his administration is found to have violated the U.S. Constitution was turned in Monday to the town clerk's office.
But whether it ends up on the town meeting ballot is still undecided, as the Brattleboro Select Board has the final say on whether it gets included on the ballot, said Town Clerk Annette Cappy, who said the board was slated to finalize the town warning next Tuesday.
Petition drive leader Kurt Daims led a similar, successful drive a year ago to have voters decide on whether to arrest Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for alleged war crimes if they ever came to Vermont and brought the wrath of conservative Bush supporters onto the town's head.
Daims said voters on both sides of the Bush issue supported his new petition, saying the article was designed to hold Bush accountable, but not to drag the country into a never-ending crisis. He said his interest was to get the truth out.
"Some people would lose faith if Mr. Bush is made a scapegoat," Daims said. "For my part, I've given up the pound of flesh."
Cappy said Daims needed to collect 480 signatures, but Daims said he collected more than 600 just to be sure, and he turned in the petition a week early.
Daims said he couldn't imagine the same national reaction when the news of the impeachment issue was posted on the conservative Web site The Drudge Report, prompting thousands of hostile attacks.
"I know some impeachment supporters want their pound of flesh, but I don't," Daims said Monday afternoon, after he delivered the final pages of signatures to Cappy. Daims has dubbed the petition drive "a revelation proclamation" and he said he hopes it spreads to other communities, in Vermont and beyond.
Daims said that the proposed article would not issue a "pre-emptive pardon," but was designed to 'temper justice with mercy.'"
"This isn't going to get anybody mad except impeachment activists," Daims said. "We all have a part in his being president. Let's see what went wrong."
Vice President Dick Cheney was not included in the petition, as he was a year ago, and that was a deliberate decision, said Daims and fellow activist Susan Harman, a friend of Daims who came from Oakland, Calif., to help him with the petition drive.
The last person to sign the petition was Sheila Linton, a member of the Brattleboro School Board, who said she supported Daims' effort.
"It's exciting," said Linton, who happened to be at the municipal office as Daims dropped off the final lists at Cappy's office.
"I signed it because I know Kurt and it has a happy medium to it," said Linton. "It will unite, rather than divide."
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.