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November 6th, 2007 3:15 pm
Dennis Kucinich Pushes for Cheney Impeachment Articles
WASHINGTON — Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich made a procedural move on the House floor Tuesday to call up a vote on the Democratic presidential candidate's resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, although the effort could be stopped in its tracks before the end of the day.
In the resolution, which was introduced in April and has 21 co-sponsors, Kucinich accuses Cheney of lying to Congress and the U.S. public in order to enter into a war in Iraq, and of trying to mislead again in order to start a war with Iran. Kucinich took about 15 minutes Tuesday to read the resolution into the record on the House floor.
After considering his motion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed the resolution to come up for debate.
But prospects for success on his effort to pass the resolution don't appear strong. A key Democrat on Tuesday reaffirmed that congressional leaders aren't keen on Kucinich's resolution.
"Impeachment is not on our agenda. We have some major priorities. We need to focus on those," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, adding that he planned on killing the effort.
Previewing his remarks on Monday, Kucinich issued a statement saying: "The vice president is cherry-picking intelligence and selectively using facts in a manner that does not portray the complete picture."
"The best option to prevent an unnecessary war with Iran is to impeach the vice president, the lead cheerleader of the war. The Constitution gave Congress the power to impeach. Congress must use its power to restrain the administration and impeach the vice president before he prods the United States into another war."
A Monday evening conference call intended to discuss Tuesday's plan might have foretold its future. Kucinich presidential campaign co-coordinator Herbert Hoffman said the scheduled call with resolution sponsors was canceled after suffering a fatal "technical failure."
Death of the resolution also is the preferable route for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who indicated through her spokesman Monday that impeachment is off the table.
"We're focused on redeploying our troops out of Iraq, covering 10 million uninsured children and meeting our national priorities long neglected by the Bush administration," said Pelosi aide Nadeam Elshami.
FOX News' Chad Pergram and Molly Hooper contributed to this report.
