I just watched the House of Representatives refer Dennis Kucinich’s Cheney impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee. You can peruse the resolution and various supporting documents here. The names of the intrepid co-sponsors can be found here. Each of them deserves our gratitude. I will note for the record that there is nary a Connecticut Congressperson among them. Perhaps prior service in the Connecticut legislature, where the leadership controls all, is not good training for future Congresspersons.
I’m not conversant enough with House Rules to be sure of exactly what happened. Kucinich got it to the floor on a privileged motion. I started watching in the middle, so I may have this wrong, but I think Steny Hoyer tried to get it tabled, which failed. Then they voted to refer it to the Judiciary Committee, where I expect it will die a slow and neglected death.
If I got this right, it’s a somewhat hopeful sign that most of the Dems (all but five) voted against the motion to table, (along with three Republicans, by the way), and just as many voted to refer it to Judiciary, rather than kill it outright. It would appear that no one wants to go back to their district and stand accused of voting against impeaching Cheney. Of course none of them actually voted to impeach him, since they will do everything the can to avoid that vote, regardless of how popular that would make them with the country.
And how popular would it make them? Well, today we learn the following:
…Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.
That’s right, he beats Nixon, who at least was competently evil. Maybe if the strongly disapprove number reaches 100% the Democrats will decide that maybe they should stand up to him.
In that same poll, by the way, 45% of the people in this country oppose going to war with Iran, even if they get nuclear weapons. That number would go up appreciably if the Dems would say out loud what everyone knows: that we are being played again, and the case for a war with Iran is as dishonest as the case they made to get us into Iraq. A little leadership on this issue could go a long way toward avoiding another disaster, but too many Democrats seem to feel the better course is to keep quiet.
Update: Re the impeachment resolution: see here for a different view. The numbers they cite weren’t what I saw on the screen, so there must have been a vote before tuned in. Personally, I don’t agree that people would be against impeaching Cheney. Everyone detests him. He’s no Bill Clinton, by a long shot.
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