Congressman Hinchey

Yesterday Tompkins County Democrats hosted a reception to express appreciation to Congressman Maurice Hinchey for his work on behalf of his constituents in District 22.


Hinchey spoke at length about the grim realities of Bush administration, referring to Bush often as "the most impeachable president" ever. His speech was painfully reminiscent of the one he gave two years ago at Cornell Law School. Then, as now, I listened hopefully through the long list of Bush's impeachable offenses I already understand only to be left hanging at the point that I wanted to hear what's going to be done. At that time Hinchey said Congress was too intimidated to launch impeachment proceedings. Yesterday Hinchey said simply "there isn't enough support..."

The idealist in me hates this. It's not enough to say "It's the right thing to do, but we're not doing it 'cause it can't be done." But I have this annoying memory of doing exactly the same thing last year on the Town Board with the Sustainable Energy Ordinance. I'd like to do whatever we can to encourage development of wind power, but there's not enough support on the Board or in the community, so I settled for a proposal making development of residential wind energy devices possible.

Congressman Hinchey has worked with Senator Feingold to introduce two censure resolutions in the House and Senate. It's not enough, but, distasteful as I find this phrase, it's better than nothing. In fact, it's a lot better than nothing.