http://www.impeachcheney.org, By David Swanson
Congressman Dennis Kucinich said on a conference call Monday evening that after moving to impeach Vice President Cheney on Tuesday he will also introduce, at a future date, a resolution to impeach President Bush. Or rather, he would have said that on the conference call if not for several technical SNAFUs.
The call was advertised as a one-way call on which only Kucinich could speak, but Kucinich was unable to get through because of the incredible number of people on the call (I have no count yet, but the dings of the new people coming on were a steady stream of noise for half an hour).
So Kucinich phoned me, and I held one of my phones up to another so that everyone on the call could hear him. That was working fine for about 20 seconds, until the geniuses running the call chose that moment to mute everyone except Dennis (without stopping to realize that by muting me they were muting Dennis). So, Kucinich gave a nice speech through my phones, but I was the only one listening.
Here’s what he said:
He is going to introduce a privileged resolution on the floor of the U.S. House Tuesday morning to force a vote on his resolution to impeach Cheney (H Res 333). While that bill includes offenses related to Iraq and Iran, Kucinich plans to focus his remarks on Iran and the fact that the current Pentagon bill includes funding to retrofit bombers to carry 15-ton bombs.
Kucinich said he would hold a press conference at 3 p.m. in 2456 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., and would post on his House website and at http://impeachcheney.org an account of what transpired on the floor.
He said that there might be an actual debate on the substance of the charges, for which he said he was prepared, or there might be a motion to table the matter (effectively killing it if successful), or it might be referred to a committee. If it is sent to committee, Kucinich said, it will be the House Judiciary Committee. I asked whether (as has been done with impeachment resolutions in the past) he would be able to insist on a time limit for the committee to report back. Kucinich seemed unsure whether that could be done, but proposed that whether or not the matter is sent to committee he might start a discharge petition as another tool for forcing real action on the floor of the House.
Currently H Res 333 sits in the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman Jerrold Nadler has done nothing with it for months.
Kucinich expressed great appreciation for what all the activist groups and individuals on the call are doing to help promote impeachment. He also wanted to let everyone know that he will not only continue pushing for the impeachment of Cheney but will also take up the impeachment of Bush with a new resolution.
This was terrific to hear. I wish I had not been the only one to hear it.
By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans, changing course midway through a vote, tried to force Democrats into a debate on a resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney on the grounds he purposely led the country into war against Iraq.
The GOP tactics reversed what had been expected to an overwhelming vote to table, or kill, the resolution by longshot Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.
Midway through the vote, with instructions from the GOP leadership, Republicans one by one changed their votes from yes _ to kill the resolution _ to no, trying to force the chamber into a debate and an up-or-down vote on the proposal.
At one point there were 290 votes to table. After the turnaround, the final vote was 251-162 against tabling, with 165 Republicans voting against it.
“We’re going to help them out, to explain themselves,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. “We’re going to give them their day in court.”
Kucinich, an anti-war Democrat from Ohio, has long pushed for a vote to impeach Cheney, but has failed to win the backing of the Democratic leadership. After Kucinich introduced the resolution, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., immediately moved to table it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “has said that impeachment is off the table and that the new direction Congress is focused on responsibly and honorably redeploying our troops out of Iraq, covering 10 million uninsured children and meeting our national priorities long neglected by the Bush Administration,” said her spokesman Nadeam Elshami.
The resolution said that Cheney, “in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully executive the office of vice president,” had “purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.”
The 11-page resolution also charged that Cheney purposely deceived the nation about an alleged relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaida and has “openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States.”
House approval of an article of impeachment sends the issue to the Senate, which has the constitutional authority to try and, with a two-thirds vote, remove a person from office.
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The bill is H. Res 789.