Posted on 07/11/2007 9:34:08 AM PDT by yoe
Angry members of the anti-war left have one immediate goal: get the head of Vice President Dick Cheney on the platter of impeachment.
On April 24, 2007, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a candidate for president, introduced House Resolution 333 to impeach Cheney.
As of the most recent count, the controversial resolution had but 14 co-sponsors formally signed on. This week, Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) announced he was signing on as a co-sponsor.
Still, the handful of Democratic banditos are not seemingly much of a movement - but Capitol Hill historians can recall that the effort to impeach President Clinton, led by Republican Congressman Bob Barr, had just 30 or so co-sponsors when that campaign began.
There are some differences. Barr indeed cited actual malfeasance by Clinton that could form the articles of impeachment. Kucinich and crew have no actual laws Cheney is alleged to have broken. Instead, these angry Democrats are simply motivated by hate of the Bush administration, anger over the Iraq war and significant policy differences over the war on terror.
But the "get Cheney" effort should be easily dismissed. Strategically, the Democrats would want to impeach Cheney before Bush, because Cheney would become president if Bush is removed from office.
At the very least, going after Cheney makes for good political points for Democrats who see the 2008 election leering at them just over the horizon.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., seized the anti-Cheney fever and recently offered an amendment to de-fund Cheney's office after stories emerged about Cheney snubbing disclosure laws on intelligence matters -- citing himself as not a part of the executive branch.
Emanuel's novel move petered out with some two dozen Democrats opposing the Emanuel amendment - but it still demonstrated that the Democratic leadership has the vice president in their cross-hairs.
Attacks Rubbing Off:
In 2002 in an unprecedented move against a sitting vice president, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, filed a federal court suit challenging Cheney's refusal to hand over documents related to national energy policy.
In 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's argument that it has a constitutional right to keep the workings of the Cheney Energy Task Force secret. However, the court refused to rule on whether Cheney must produce documents and sent the case back to the Court of Appeals.
More recently, Cheney's office came under fire from the left for refusing to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules.
The Constitution provides for only one exception in cases of impeachment: “When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside.” That’s because of the obvious conflict-of-interest of having the VP preside when the President is tried. But there’s no similar provision for having someone else preside if the Vice President is impeached.
Presumably that’s because no one could imagine a Vice President doing anything significant enough to warrant impeachment, which was certainly an accurate reflection of the office’s character for the first two centuries or so of our nation’s history. And it’s another argument against the VP being given extensive executive responsibilities, now that I think of it.
http://digg.com/politics/Cheney_to_Preside_Over_Own_Impeachment
I agree with you. I have my issues with President Bush regarding his immigration stand and his timid response to all the socialists in congress but apart from that I am pretty thankful he is in office right now and not a democrat.
I know I shouldn’t laugh about this but ...
“Impeach the Vice President” ...
What kind of deluded fool tries to impeach the VICE President?
At this rate all the Democrats will have to show for winning the Senate and House in 04 is 300 investigations that signified nothing, found nothing, and wasted millions of taxpayer dollars.
Maybe its just me, but I’m beginning to suspect 2008 will be very good for the Republican Party.
“What kind of deluded fool tries to impeach the VICE President?”
One who doesn’t understand that, see post 2, the VP would preside over his own impeachment trial.
impeech cheney and ‘something’ will happen to bush. i’ll bet this is the plan - it will put Pelosi in the white house.
Oh, so that's why he wants to give millions of illegal terrorists and other aliens in this country amnesty, rather than enforce the laws and sovereignty of the nation, honoring his oath of office?
Hate to see what he does to disrespect his countrymen
I second that!
If Cheney were Impeached. Bush should Nominate Rumsfeld as VP. hehe wouldnt this drive our insane democrats well uhmm more insane. LOL
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