Impeachment Moves Forward

I agree with Chris Bowers that this should have gotten a full floor vote instead, but Rep. Dennis Kucinich's 35 articles of impeachment against George W. Bush was referred to the House Judiciary Committee today, as per the Ohio Congressman's request. Impeachment is absolutely warranted, though as Bowers says, without a compliant Congress we wouldn't have any need for it (which is also why we'll never see it happen):

My basic feeling on impeaching Bush and Cheney is that if we had a Congress that was capable of impeaching and convicting those two, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. A Congress that was willing to impeach and convict Bush and Cheney over Iraq would have already stopped the Iraq war. A Congress that was willing to impeach and convict Bush and Cheney over FISA would not have passed a bad FISA bill last August. A Congress that was willing to impeach Bush and Cheney would never have allowed Bush and Cheney to take office, and would have overturned the 2000 election results. A Congress that was willing to impeach Bush and Cheney over signing statements would have, well, impeached Bush and Cheney a long, long time ago. A Congress that was willing to impeach bush and Cheney would have at least conducted more thorough and effective investigations of administration wrongdoing since the start of 2007.

Indeed. But nevertheless, Congress should be on the record about the crimes of the Administration. Robert Wexler is the first colleague of Kucinich's to co-sponsor the bill, and he's a House Judiciary member, and really I hope they keep pushing (Kucinich has vowed to do so). Having someone stand up in the Congress for progressive principles and values is vital, no matter the outcome. some fights are worth waging.

The most interesting thing about the vote was that 24 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to refer it. This included the usual suspects like Ron Paul and Wayne Gilchrest, but also a number of threatened Republicans who are in tough re-election fights. In California, David Dreier, he of the House leadership, voted to refer. I guess he doesn't want to be seen as such a Bush rubber-stamp after all.