It was a close call, but on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 Democrats in the House of Representatives saved Dick Cheney from having to face impeachment. Yes, you read that right. The Democrats saved Dick’s butt.
Dennis Kucinich had introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Cheney. He accused him of deliberately leading the country into the Iraq war, manipulating intelligence about Iraq’s ties with al-Qaeda, and threatening war against Iran.
Republicans attempted to try to force a debate and vote on the resolution. But the Democrat leadership of the House was terrified about debating impeachment of “Darth Vader.” By a largely party-line vote of 218-194, the Democrats sent the proposal to the House Judiciary Committee for further study. In other words, they voted to kill the resolution by burying it alive.
Kucinich has been pursuing the impeachment of Cheney for quite awhile, but he has been routinely rebuked by the Democratic House leadership. When he introduced the resolution, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer immediately moved to table the resolution (a parliamentary move to kill it). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also has repeatedly stated that “impeachment is off the table.” The Democrat leadership has proved they meant what they have been saying. They have done their best to preserve the Bush regime.