And The Oscar Goes To...Not Peter Welch

Welchie is back in DC! After a long week in Vermont, what they call in the Congressional calendar the "President's Day District Work Period," Welch has a pretty busy few days scheduled back in the big city. What's on his social card?

Well, according to this article, he will be having lunch with Governor Douglas tomorrow, (no word on whether or not the Tabard Inn is booked). Also, he has a few committee meetings scheduled, most notably one on his extremely late call for a look into what was happening at Walter Reed. We also assume he'll be doing the usual schmoozing his job requires, running with Smuckers, etc. Sounds pretty fun, right?

Well, there's little doubt that it will be more fun than what he has been doing this past week; namely, getting huge amounts of grief from his constituents. What has he been getting a hard time about? Let's take a look.

First, there have been questions about his lack of support for a pretty popular initiative in Vermont, the State that he, ahem, supposedly represents. This is the impeachment of the President, the prospect of which makes the lefty blog-o-wonks swoon.

As has been noted, Welch is against impeachment hearings, and will not support any initiative to commence them. We'll say it again: he can, but he won't. This is despite being asked to do so by none other than Cindy Sheehan! That's right, you can see the letter here. One of the highlights is the notable omission of any shred of respect for Welch. This is evidenced by the following snippet:

"We come not to tell the people of Vermont how to vote on warrant articles regarding impeachment at their town meetings next week. That would be not just presumptuous but foolish. Frankly, the voters who have given America George Aiken, Ralph Flanders, Robert Stafford, Jim Jeffords, Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders do not need any advice from us about how to make political choices."

Notice anything? We did. We noticed that two of the three current members of Vermont's Congressional delegation are mentioned as good, anti-war, choices...but, well, where's the other one? Not a breath on that guy. Why not? Oh yeah, he's not for impeachment. Why not? Well, according to this article, he was recently asked that very question. Probably numerous times. By angry constituents. He said that "Congress must stay focused on Iraq." Yeah...Iraq.

Apparently, Welch spent a lot of time talking about Iraq while he was back home in Vermont. He said that his goal is to "do everything (he) possibly can to end this war." The truth? Well, no. He's not.

It's not that he was not asked questions about his conflicting stance on the war. Often times, as we've seen, the MSM will gloss over what was and was not asked at media events. What else were constituents asking Welch during his campaign swing through Vermont? For example, did the unbelievably bungled Iraq plan that's in the midst of blowing up all over Nancy, Steny, and Welchie's faces happen to come up?

We don't know. But the Reformer interviewer did, however, ask ole' Welchie about an incident that apparently still has Vermonters hot under the collar with Welch. Here at WW we called it "autographgate." And, it turns out, we have a few more questions about it.

These stem from Welchie's response to continuing questions about the stunningly poor PR move Welch made in getting Bush's signature, right in national television, following the SOTU address. For reference, please see our pic below on the right. When asked about it in January he said it was for his nephew. See the link here. However, in yesterday's article Welchie explains it by saying that it was "a memento" for his "godson." Godson, eh? What about his nephew?

Well, unless he asked for two autographs, it can't be both.

Now, we admit that we said we were not going to harp on this one anymore. But really, which is it? The answer matters because, well, it sounds pretty fishy to us. Actually, it sounds like Welch just got caught making something up. Godson, nephew...himself. Whatever! It's all the same, right? Not exactly.

In the long-term, it doesn't really matter. Welchie's anti-war, anti-Bush street cred is essentially shot. Voters who bit the bullet and voted for a guy they didn't like to begin with will not only see him as a sham for his hypocrisy on the Bush/autograph issue, but his base supporters, the pro-impeachment crowd, is abandoning him for not showing any spine on their pet issue. Simply put, if you hate Bush so much, and you are the only person in Vermont who can seriously pull the trigger on impeachment hearings, then why not do it?

Chirp.

The answer is that, tah-dah, Nancy and Steny don't want him to. So he won't. Pretty simple, right?

The impeachment thing should start to get really interesting pretty soon. That's because, as this site points out, all kinds of towns will be getting down with impeachment on town meeting day. What will Welch do? We think we know, but just to make sure we'll check with Welchie's nephew. Or his godson.

Whoever.