8/11/2019 Report from the Front: Sanders Taking Heavy Shelling | Vermont Times | Jan. 31, 1991

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E P O R T   F R O M ' T H E   F R O N T :A N D E R S T A K IN G H E A V Y S H E L L IN G

nti-W ar Vote Makes Him Vulnerable   Since many Vermonters in

Kevin   J ,   Kelle the cent~r and on the right of  ff R    rt   Y   round-the-president declara- the  political   spectrum seem to

epo er    tion. The   10   blacks and one support Bush's Gulf policy, it

Barely two weeks after Latino who refused to support   isnot unreaso'.'able to assume

 being sworn into of- the resolution generally acted that a certam segment of 

fice, U.S. Rep. Bernie with little political risk. Most Sa'.'ders voters may beSanders cast a vote of them represent districts sen.ously displeased with the

that could prove to be with large minority popula- position he took Jan.   18.

most fateful of his con- tions, and polls show consid- Sanders, speaking at assional career. erable opposition to the war press conference Monday,

On Jan. among African- and Hispanic. refused    to   discuss the political  San- Americans.   r amificat.ions of his Gulf 

a   was The situation appears to be   votes. "There are other thingse of six different in Vermont, which on  my mind now than sittingau s e _. has fewer non-white residents around worrying about reo

embers than almost any other state. election," he stated. "Of  pposing In fact, Sanders' aides in both course there are people who

resolu- Washington and Burlington are upset with me:'

n sup. Bernard Sanders report an initially mixed or But the fact that the fresh-or tin g negative reaction to the con- man congressman had spent

e.sident George Bush's gressman's Jan.   18  vote. This m?st of the weekend meetingCISIOnto go to war    The   response on such   an emotion- WIth   veterans   and other easure, which als~ ex. ally charged issue points to potential disaffected con-

essed support for U S the possibility of a rupture in stituents shows it to be a con-oopsin the Gulf gained the the coalition that elected cern. That concern must havecking of   399   iawrriakers Sanders in November. been heightened the weekend 

X   other r epreaen tat.ives The independent Socialist before, when Sanders wasstained. scored a landslide victory by booed at several appearances.

ermont's socialist con- adding to his progressive base   Study InContrasts

ssman was the a I hit large numbers of moderate-ember.of th n y w let   ti   D   To some degree, Sanders'o"0   c c   e House to vote o-conserva ive emocrats as problem   is   one of  timing

r present" on the rally. well as 'some Republicans. .Continued on Page 12

8/11/2019 Report from the Front: Sanders Taking Heavy Shelling | Vermont Times | Jan. 31, 1991

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. . . S a n d e r sContinued From Page 1

Doug Boucher, the congress-

man's top assistant on Capitol

Hill, noted constituent senti-

ment after the Jan. 18 vote wasmarkedly different than that fol-

lowing another    antiwar vote cast by Sanders before fighting

started. Phone calls and lettersto the Washington office were"overwhelmingly favorable,"

Boucher said, in regard to

Sanders' stance on Jan. 12against authorizing Bush to use

military force. A majority of Democrats in the House - aswell as Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy - also opposed the presi-

dent in that pre-war debate.But following the second vote,

when Sanders was in a tinyminority, the initial reaction of Vermonters was much less   sym-

 pathetic, Boucher said. He char-acterized the 3,000   to   4,000 calls

and letters to the Washingtonoffice since Jan. 18 as roughlyevenly divided at first. In recentdays, Boucher added, the re-sponse "has swung back t owardbeing more favorable to Bernie's

position."Anthony Pollina, a Burling-

ton-based Sanders staffer, calcu-lated the immediate reaction

here to the Jan. 18 vote as 2-1

negative. Many callers believed,Pollina noted, that Sanders wasnot supporting U.S. troops in the

Gulf. "But once we explained to people that Bernie does supportthe forces there but is opposed tothe war itself, a lot of them be-came more understanding   of his

vote," Pollina said.

Making Political Hay

Perhaps not surprisingly, thedirector of the Vermont Repub-lican Party believes Sanders will

 be badly hurt by his Jan. 18 vote.

One real danger for Sanders,   ac-

cording to state GOP chief Brian

Cosgrove, is that he will now beseen by many Vermon ters as the

sort of politician who can't be

trusted to maintain a consistent

position. ."At   first,"   Cosgrove   sa.ld,

"Bernie was in favor of  sending

troops there, but then he gotquite a bit of heat from his core

constituency, and so he changed 

his   position."But that turnaround is   "not

completely illogical," said stateSen. John McClaughry, a lead-

ing conservative in the Vermont

Republican Party. Circumstan-ces themselves changed,   Me-

Claughry observed, with Bushacting in November to shift U.S.forces in the Gulf from a defen-sive to an offensive footing.

Sanders should not be faulted,

he argued, for taking a dilTerentstand after so profound a changein U.S. strategy.

At the same time, however,

McClaughry contended that"many thousands of moderates

who voted for Bernie will nowsay,   'He'a   not representing   out

views on this   issue."   Up   to one-third of Sanders' supporters in

 November could be alTected in

this way, McClaughry estimated.

A Short Honeymoon

Vermonters strongly opposed 

to gun control may be the sectionof Sanders'   coali   tion most es-

tranged by his Jan. 18 vote. Anunknown but probably signifi-cant number ofgun owners backed 

Sanders in November   out of rage

over what they viewed as a betrayal on this issue by former 

Congressman Peter Smith.

"Naturally,   we're disgustedwith [Sanders'] votes on theGulf',"   declared Westford farmer

Harry Montague, a member of 

the National Rille Association.Montague said he cast a ballotfor Sanders in November solelyas a m eans of getting rid of  

Smith.   "Bernie   Sanders was

sent down there for just one pur- pose _ to replace Smith. And nOW

that he's served that purpose,we'll have no further use for him,

regardless of what he does or 

doesn't do in Congress," Mon-

tague added. -

 pockets Of SupportMembers of Vermont veter-

ans' organizations might   a~sob.eexpected to resent Sanders pOSI-

tion on the troop-support resolu-

tion. But few members of at leastone Veterans of Foreign War 

 post feel vehemen tly o,? this

matter, according to WIlhamVerrinder of the Middlebury

VFW.

III   didn't like Bernie's vote atall   011   the Gulf," said   Verrind~r)

who served two tours of duty   In

Vietnam. "But I still feel OK about him being our con-

gressman. He's a lot better in my

 book than Peter Smith."Another VFW activist at a

Burlington-area post had asimilar assessment. lilt might be

surprising to you," said his

Korean war veteran,   "that   evenin an organization like this there

are a certain percentage of peo-

ple who were against it evenbefore the war started." The vet-

eran, who requested anonymity,

said he had voted for Sanders in

November and does not nowregret having done so.   "It's mind-

 boggling to some of us that he

wouldn't support the troops, butwe knew what he was about

 before he got down there."

University of Vermont politi-cal scientist Garrison Nelson

 believes the Republicans will

"clearly   try to run against Ber-

nie on this." Nelson doubts, how-ever, that such a tack will provesuccessful.   "People   hardly ever'

vote for Congress on a foreign-

policy basis," he says.   "And   theyalso don't follow reprisal voting

patterns. They seldom use a voteas a way of getting even with  some-one who's displeased them." _