Hoyer Sinks Kucinich
UPDATED Again: The Republican Leadership ordered members to vote to send the articles to committee.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Hold everything. Hoyer's motion to table has been voted down by a 251-162 margin - and it looks like at least 149 Republicans voted not to table. It looks like they're trying to force an up or down vote on sending the articles to the judiciary committee.
Steny Hoyer just torpedoed the good (space) ship Kucinich by forcing the latter's motion to impeach Dick Cheney to be tabled. Well, the House leadership managed to avoid a public spectacle but will have just enraged the nutroots and sent them off into a foaming rage. The Baltimore Sun Swamp says this:
With Democrats averse to opening an intramural debate on an issue that divides their base, party leaders are expected to nip the measure in the bud this afternoon. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters this morning that he would move to table the measure when Kucinich introduces it.
"[House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] and I have both said impeachment is not on our agenda," Hoyer told reporters. "That does not make a judgment on that issue."
Hoyer’s motion appears likely to pass – an outcome that would further alienate an antiwar left already frustrated with a lack of progress by congressional Democrats on changing U.S. policy on Iraq.
They also quote this from the Huffnpuff Post:
"We are in a serious Constitutional crisis," Joseph A. Palermo, a professor of history at California State University, Sacramento, wrote this morning on the Huffington Post. "Democrats were elected to Congress to put the brakes on the Bush-Cheney juggernaut. … [Kucinich’s bill] is a long overdue measure coming from a Democrat who has the guts to stand up for the United States Constitution."
My god. It may be time to send the chauffeur to the barricades!
By LYNNDH, Tuesday, 6 November , 2007 @ 2:47 pm
I am just disgusted that so many “History Professors” today are lacking historical perspective. They have forgotton what was (or should have been) taught to them in graduate history classes about research techniques and philosophy. (I have a MA in history.)