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Monday, July 16, 2007
Bernie Invites Bush to Vermont
Posted
By Peter Freyne
on Mon, Jul 16, 2007 at 9:03 PM
Only one state in the United States of America Republican President George "WMD" Bush has not visited - the state of Vermont!
Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders [pictured at this morning's press conference with Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie of the Vermont National Guard], let it be known in response to a question from yours truly that several months ago, he personally invited President Bush to Vermont before his term runs out. Here's the transcript of that part of today's presser at Ol' Bernardo's Burlington office:
FREYNE LAND: Is there any outside hunch, gotta ask, if this deployment of the Vermont National Guard is in any way, that there’s a political side of it in terms of Vermont being the only state the President hasn’t visited, and, given the politics of our congresssional delegation in opposing the President...
SANDERS: Do I think it is a coincidence that this is the last state, the only state that the President has not visited?
No, I don’t think that it’s a coincidence. [Chuckling breaks out.]
I think he understands that he is not enormously popular in this state.
But, let me be very frank. He is the President of the 50 states, and I hope he has the decency and the courage to come to the state of Vermont. That’s his job as the President of the United States and furthermore, I hope he will do what he very rarely does, and that is, in a respectful meeting of sorts, answer the questions that people have. Here’s the President of the United States and he deserves to be treated with respect.
But one of the issues that has concerned me with regard to this president for many years, he keeps giving speeches into audiences which are not quite open to people who have different points of view. And I would hope that he would allow us to ask him questions. And I hope and expect that in this state they would be done respectfully.
FREYNE LAND: So have you invited him?
SANDERS: I did, actually, as a matter of fact, a number of months ago when I met him [at the White House], I did.
FREYNE LAND: You said, 'Come to Vermont?'
SANDERS: Sure. We’d love to talk to you.
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About The Author
Peter Freyne
Bio:
Peter Freyne, 1949-2009, wrote the weekly political column "Inside Track," which originated in the Vanguard Press in the mid 1980s; he brought it to Seven Days in 1995. He retired it shortly before his death in January, 2009. We all miss him.
Peter Freyne, 1949-2009, wrote the weekly political column "Inside Track," which originated in the Vanguard Press in the mid 1980s; he brought it to Seven Days in 1995. He retired it shortly before his death in January, 2009. We all miss him.
