Impeachment Petition Goes Missing In Garrett Park, MD

[Hissyspit]

http://www.gazette.net/stories/080807/silvnew202659_32374.shtml

Impeachment petition goes missing in Garrett Park
More than 50 signatures urged a call for Bush, Cheney removal
by Audrey Dutton | Staff Writer

It may not be the next Watergate, but the mysterious disappearance of a pro-impeachment petition in a Garrett Park building last week made its originator livid.

‘‘I was outraged,” said Warren Kornberg, a retired journalist who recently started a town petition urging the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. ‘‘Dick” Cheney. ‘‘My first response was to get a blank sheet of paper and scribble on it, ‘God damn all vandals,’ and put it in place. And then I thought, ‘Better not do that.’”

Kornberg hung the petition July 30 on a public bulletin board just outside the town’s post office in the Penn Place building that is owned by the small downcounty enclave. Kornberg said he last saw the petition on Thursday at the post office, when he checked how many signatures had been collected. Kornberg had just put out a fresh signature sheet and removed the signed sheets that had been there.

But by Friday morning, the petition had disappeared, Kornberg discovered.

Kornberg replaced the missing petition with another set of fresh signature sheets. The petition is now displayed on a freestanding easel. It is housed in the alcove off the main post office lobby. The lobby is a public gathering place where people go to visit neighbors while picking up mail, and a favorite spot for fliers, notices or petitions. Also on display is a photocopied version of the 58 signatures collected before the disappearance, and the eight new signatures left since Kornberg replaced the missing petition.

‘‘Obviously we don’t like people to remove notices or petitions,” said Ted Pratt, Garrett Park town administrator. ‘‘There are citizens that feel both ways, and we could accommodate a petition in support of the other side,” against impeachment, Pratt said.