There were so many people at the Statehouse Wednesday that, while they were congregating in the cafeteria, legislators and staff couldn't find any place to eat lunch.
And when the House began its work that afternoon, the impeachment supporters outnumbered the legislators by at least two-to-one margins. Maybe more. They filled all the extra seats, sat on the floor near the front of the chambers and overflowed the balcony and hallways.
One mantra that veteran legislators and staff repeated throughout the day: They had never seen anything like this before.
Well, maybe at least since the debate over Civil Unions.
"We didn't have much time to prepare," James Leas, a South Burlington attorney who drafted the town meeting impeachment language, said this morning. "We were so focused on at least getting the debate and the vote that we only had a few hours to contact our legislators to support the issue."
If President Bush wasn't less than two years away from leaving office - if his second term stretched out a few more years - there should be little doubt that with some more time and more organization, Wednesday's 87-60 House vote rejecting impeachment would have been flipped.
-Dan Barlow
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