PRESS RELEASE
Cheney's Downfall—and Pelosi's—
Not `Off the Table'
Nov. 7, 2007 (EIRNS)—Despite House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's attempt to deny that Dennis Kucinich had succeeded in putting the impeachment of Vice President Cheney "on the table" yesterday, the Kucinich resolution was widely debated today. In addition to the Ohio Congressman's own interviews on three television stations this morning, other Democrats entered the debate.
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which received the resolution after yesterday's floor action, sent a letter to his own constituents and urged the Committee "to schedule impeachment hearings immediately, and not let this languish as it has over the last six months.... The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry." Wexler had not been one of the 22 co-sponsors of Kucinich's H.R. 333 bill of impeachment against Cheney, but he was one of 86 Democrats who voted yesterday to defeat Hoyer's attempt to "table" (kill) the Kucinich resolution.
Another Democrat not a co-sponsor of H.R. 333, Carolyn Shea-Porter (NH), issued a statement which said, "In a strongly bipartisan vote today, the House of Representatives voted to refer a resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney to the House Judiciary Committee.... It is the duty of the Vice President to faithfully execute the laws of the United States of America and to defend the Constitution. There is growing evidence that the Executive Branch has ignored some of our laws and has attempted to bend the Constitution to its will.
"Members of both parties decided that this issue is too important to ignore. I voted with my Republican and Democratic colleagues to investigate the Vice President's actions in office."
The Impeach-Cheney resolution is now squarely "on the plate" of the Judiciary Committee, as one Congressional staffer noted. The Committee itself put out the following statement: "The committee has a very busy agenda — over the next two weeks, we hope to pass a FISA bill, to vote on contempt of Congress citations, pass legislation on prisoner re-entry, court security and a variety of other very important items.... The Chairman will discuss today's vote with the committee members, but it would seem evident that the committee staff should continue to consider, as a preliminary matter, the many abuses of this Administration, including the Vice President."
