WA POST: Kucinich Pushes Cheney Impeachment = w/ "surprise help of Republicans"

[L. Coyote]

WA POST: Kucinich Pushes Cheney Impeachment
By David M. Herszenhorn - Nov 6, 2007
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/kuchinich-keeps-pushing-cheney-impeachment/

It’s hard to know which effort has longer odds, the bid by Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, to become president of the United States, or his bid to unseat Vice President Dick Cheney by trying to get him impeached.

Both efforts got a brief burst of publicity today when Mr. Kucinich brought his bill to impeach Mr. Cheney to the House floor and, with the surprise help of Republicans aiming to embarrass Democratic Congressional leaders, nearly succeeded in securing an hour of debate.

After a motion to table Mr. Kucinich’s bill failed, the majority leader, Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, stepped in with a motion to refer the bill back to the House Judiciary Committee. That motion succeeded, by a near party-line vote of 218-194, and spared the Democrats a potentially embarrassing distraction.

House Republicans initially opposed the effort to debate Mr. Kucinich’s impeachment measure and briefly there were 290 votes in favor of tabling it.

But then the Republicans sensed an opportunity to irritate Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California who has said the Democrats have no interest in impeaching Mr. Cheney or President Bush. The Republicans began changing their votes and by the time the clock ran out, the tally was 251 to 162 against tabling with 165 Republicans voting no. ............