Common Sense Political Thought

I received an e-mail this evening, from the Distinguished Gentleman from Ohio:

URGENT – Kucinich delivering impeachment articles NOW!
Date: 6/9/2008 7:49:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: reply@kucinichforcongress.com



URGENT – Kucinich delivering impeachment articles NOW!

Dear friends:

A few moments ago, (approximately 7:30 p.m. EDT), Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich took to the floor of the House of Representatives to present 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush. The House session is being televised live on C-SPAN.

Thank you
The Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee

According to my precise calculations, President Bush has 225 days left in office. If Congressman Kucinich managed to get the House to actuially consider his 35 Articles of Impeachment, they’d be referred to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration and mark-up. After languishing there during the slow summer — and the Congress recesses during August — they might be reported out in September, just as the presidential campaign, as well as the re-election campaigns of the members of Congress, really get underway.

But, let’s assume that yes, the House of Representatives did vote out some articles of impeachment. After all, the Democrats have the majority, and it takes but a simple majority, 218 votes, to pass an Article of Impeachment.

Then it would go to the Senate. Unfortunately for Mr Kucinich, it requires a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate to remove an impeached officiial from office. With 100 members in the Senate, that’s 67 votes needed for conviction. There are 49 Democrats, plus two Democratic-leaning independents in the Senate, along with 49 Republicans. If all 51 Democrats and independents vote for removal, they’d still need 16 Republicans to go along with them.

Not going to happen.

But maybe, just maybe, the Senate Democrats would say, “Why let’s just hold off on this impeachment trial until after the elections, ’till we can see if we’ll have more Democrats in the next Senate.”

We’re into November now, and President Bush would have just 2½ months left in office.

But, let’s assume again that yes, the Democrats get the votes they need in the Senate to remove George Bush from the presidency, before the end of his term on January 20, 2009. In that event, it isn’t John McCain or Barack Obama who becomes president, it’s Dick Cheney! The Distinguished Gentleman from Ohio tried to get articles of impeachment going against Vice President Cheney last year; in a parliamentary move designed to embarrass the Democrats (a quaint notion, which assumes that the House Democrats actually have a sense of shame), the Republicans forced the onset of a floor debate, which the Democrats promptly quelled by sending Mr Kucinich’s articles to the Judiciary Committee, where they have languished ever since.

The Democrats are not the least bit interested in impeachment.President Bush and Vice President Cheney will be out of office soon enough, and the lastreally so dumb he doesn’t realize this? If he couldn’t get the Congress to act on an impeachment of Vice President Cheney, with more than a year left in his term, why would any reasonable man think that he could interest the Congress in impeaching President Bush with just 7½ months left in his term?