MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – President Bush may soon have a new reason to avoid left-leaning Vermont: In one town, activists want him subject to arrest for war crimes.

A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on the Town Meeting agenda in March that would make Bush – who’s been to every state except Vermont as president – and Vice President Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the southeastern Vermont town.

“This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they’re supposed to do,” said Kurt Daims, 54, a retired machinist leading the drive.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the drive Friday. The press office didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail query.

Town Meeting is the annual exercise in old-fashioned New England democracy in which townspeople gather to vote on everything from fire department budgets to municipal policy. To get a binding item on the agenda, supporters need about 1,000 signatures.

“Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities?” reads the proposed measure.

“Shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictment, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro and extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?”

But support for it is far from universal, even in Vermont, where the state Senate voted earlier this year to impeach the president, anti-war rallies are regular occurrences and “Impeach Bush” bumper stickers are as common as snowshoes in February.

“I would not be supportive of it,” said Stephen Steidle, a member of the town’s Select Board. “It’s well outside of our ability. From my perspective, the Brattleboro Selectboard needs to focus on the town and the things that need to be done here.”

Daims, who says his group wants to up the ante beyond calling for impeachment, has been circulating two documents: One is steeped in the language of the Declaration of Independence, complete with references to “inalienable rights” and urging supporters to pledge to one another “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The statement claims a “Universal Jurisdiction, that this jurisdiction obtains when governments breach their highest duties, that under this jurisdiction we can arrest and prosecute George Bush and Richard Cheney … and that we have the full power to issue indictments, conduct trials, incarcerate offenders and do all other acts which Independent jurisdictions may of right do.”

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, a Democrat whose office has repeatedly sued the Bush administration over environmental issues, disagrees. He calls the move “of very dubious legality.”

Brattleboro would be hard-pressed to enforce a law trying to punish conduct previous conduct, since the U.S. Constitution bars such “ex post facto” laws, he said.

“I have not seen the proposal and I’ve done no legal research on any of the issues,” Sorrell said. “But at first blush, if this passed, they’d have really uphill sledding trying to have it be legal and enforceable.”

AP-ES-12-28-07 1532EST