Instead, Speaker Symington has been devoted to working on Vermont matters, including the expense of Vermont public education and efforts to relieve the crushing tax burdens on Vermont cities and towns. Among her other areas of interest are the all important matter of health care in this state along with other issues including the environment and energy.
The impeachment matter is at best divisive and best left in Washington. Headline grabbing on the subject provides nothing and consumes valuable time that the local lawmakers could have used for the important Vermont issues. The critics of the Vermont speaker should refocus their efforts. The issue of whether or not to impeach is clearly heard in the White House and Congress. Any action in Vermont is not central to the debate on that issue. Besides, the White House occupants have another year and a half to dig a bigger hole and increase their unfavorableness throughout the country, which should have some effect on the election of 2008.
Meanwhile, despite her critics, Speaker Symington should remain at her post and begin to make plans for the next session of the Vermont Legislature and specifically the Vermont House.
It is time to play Vermont politics, not national politics. The late great Speaker Tip O'Neill said it all in just one sentence: "All politics is local." That applies in a big way, even in Vermont.
{loadnavigation}
