The credit card associations and the banks that support them have gotten away for too long without answering serious questions about their practices, and at long last, tomorrow there will be a hearing on Capitol Hill to consider the Credit Card Fair Fee Act - HR 5546. It hasn't had the same press as the Credit Card Bill of Rights but it is no less important, and I say that not just because I work with the merchant group that has done tons of work over the last couple years to bring the issue to this point.

One co-sponsor of the bill who speaking up on the issue is Vermont's Peter Welch, one of the best progressives we have in the House. Comments from Welch and more details via the Rutland Herald below:

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Big news from the Green Mountain State.

The Vermont Guardian reports:

The Vermont Senate this morning approved by a 16-9 margin a resolution calling on the U.S. House to launch impeachment proceedings of Pres. George W. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

The Vermont Senate is the first state legislative body in the country to call on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. Impeachment resolutions are currently active in Hawaii, Missouri, New Jersey, and Washington. A measure in New Mexico was quashed earlier this year.

The move comes just days after nearly 150 people from around Vermont converged on Montpelier to urge lawmakers to pass such a resolution out of the House and Senate. The emotionally-charged, 40-minute meeting left backers hopeful that something could happen this session.

Today's resolution was introduced by Senate Pres. Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, and Sen. Jeannette White, D-Windham. The process began last night when Senate Majority Leader Dick McCormick, D-Windsor, introduced a resolution. However, his resolution did not include Cheney. The resolution by Shumlin and White did include Cheney.

The vote took place early in the morning and was over in less than a half hour.

The Senate version now goes to Washington and if the Vermont House passes theirs by the end of the session, expect this to send an even stronger message and send ripples throughout the country and beyond.

As ABC Sports Al Michaels once said, "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?.

Vermonters do.

For more great coverage check out the rest of the Vermont Guardian story and the one and only Green Mountain Daily.

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The Associated Press has projected Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as the winner of the open Vermont Senator's seat and Peter Welch (D-VT) as the winner of the VT-AL seat in Congress.  Sanders was expected to win easily.  Welch, however, had a fight on his hands in a race for a the open congressional seat vacated by Sanders.  The fact that the AP is ready to call the race the moment the polls close indicates that Welch likely won handily.  This is a good sign for Democrats across the country.  

I spent the day canvassing and then spent the evening phone banking, working on the Democratic (and Sanders) GOTV operation in Burlington and its suburban communities.  While at campaign headquarters, I overheard a Vermont State Senator say that the turn out appeared to be approaching the 2004 turn out, which would be great for a mid-term election!  

My experience in canvassing today indicates that Democrats were voting.  Every single target that I talked to indicated that they had already voted, or at times earlier in the day, that they definitely planned to vote.  Towards the end of the day, I couldn't find a single Democratic target that had not voted yet.      Not one!

Second, the Vermont Democratic Headquarters had strong participation from volunteers.  When I completed my initial canvass list, I came back and was sent back out to a neighborhood that we had already canvassed once earlier in the day to look for people that weren't at home the first time.  In this particular neighborhood, we reached more than two-thirds of the targets and every single target we reached had voted.  

These are great results.  I am optimistic of our chances up and down the ticket, even for the governor's race!

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The Republican's plan to conclude September with a flourish of legislative activity was almost comical to behold.  Both unable and unwilling to do anything meaningful on immigration, they passed another 700-mile fence to nowhere and never had the Conference Committee meet, despite the fact that both the House and the Senate had approved their separate immigration bills months ago.  

Their proposal to be tough on terrorism continues to allow the President to torture and exempt people who violated our laws - giving them a "get out of jail free card." Allowing some people, who's only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time in Afghanistan or Pakistan, to languish in prison for years.  Any "credit" that the Republicans could have hoped to achieve evaporated with the press surrounding Bob Woodward's new book on the Bush Administration disarray in Iraq, not to mention the revelations about former GOP Congressman Mark Foley that drowned out everything else.

As I started a swing of four Congressional districts over four days in four different states in the Northeast, it was hard to imagine a worse set of circumstances for the Republicans.  These four candidates I was traveling to support, all non-incumbents, exemplified why there is an excellent chance to change the control of Congress in the next session.  

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I know that you have been watching the Connecticut Senate race closely and thought you might appreciate knowing that Ned Lamont will be coming to Burlington, Vermont this Friday.

Ned's win is still reverberating across the political establishment and Ned is coming to celebrate with Democracy for America. We would love it if you could come and join us on Friday, August 18, 2006 from 6-7pm at Main Street Landing in Burlington.

Check it out: http://www.dfalink.com/lamont

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