I had even more fun tracking the reactions on the left as they figured out exactly what had happened.
Today the fallout from the brilliant move of turning the tables and spot lighting the idiocy of the Democratic politicians by the GOP, is still raining down.
The Hill:
House Republicans on Tuesday nearly forced Democratic leaders to vote on a resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney.
Anti-war presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a privileged resolution, used to circumvent the committee process, to get his impeachment measure to the House floor.
The vote to kill Kucinch’s privileged resolution began as a largely party-line affair, but halfway through the vote, Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) persuaded Republican leaders to get rank-and-file GOP lawmakers to change their votes to force the debate.
At one point, the vote to table the motion stood at 246-165. Once Republicans began switching their votes, momentum swung the other way. When the vote stood at 205-206, some Democrats began switching their votes.
The vote to kill Kucinich’s resolution finally failed 162-251, giving Republicans the opportunity to watch Democrats debate whether to impeach Cheney — a debate in which many liberal Democrats were more than willing to engage.
House Republicans clearly enjoyed watching Democratic leaders squirm during the series of votes, which lasted more than one hour.
“The determination was made that if Democrats are going to waste time and resources with a resolution like this, then it should be thoroughly debated,” said Brian Kennedy, the spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), adding that the charges against Cheney were “ludicrous.”
Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), accused Republicans of “wasting time.”
Stopping here for a quick note to Pelosi.. it wasn't the Republicans that offered the resolution, it wasn't the Republican leaders that tried to "table" a resolution that one of their own party members put on the floor and it wasn't the Republicans that begged for a debate when they really didn't want one.
Perhaps the speaker would like to turn that gaze inward into her own party and tell them to stop wasting time.
All the Republicans did is give the Democrats the middle ring of the circus they created and have turned Congress into and then made sure the spot light was shone directly on the divisions within the Democratic party.
What happened next exposed the ideological fissures in the Democratic Caucus. Kucinich stared down Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who has been critical of the war but does not want to get bogged down in a political impeachment quagmire. Pelosi has taken the same stance.
Hoyer and Democratic leaders succeeded by a 218-194 vote to get a majority of Democrats to stop further debate. The House then voted by the same margin to send Kucinich’s resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, where it will be left to languish and die.
Since taking power, Hoyer and Pelosi have said that impeachment is “off the table.” He told reporters on Tuesday that he expected Kucinich’s resolution would fail when it reached the House floor, but prediction did not pan out.
“This administration has approximately 12 months to 14 months to go. We have some major priorities. We believe that we need to pursue those policies and focus on those policies,” Hoyer said.
In a separate statement, Hoyer called the debate “a continuation of Republicans’ gotcha games that achieve nothing more than short-term entertainment for themselves, while showing their disdain for the importance of the people’s business.”
Actually Mr. Hoyer, your own party showed that disdain by playing games to which the Republicans finally they decided they wanted to play with you.
Republicans were helpful and gave Kucinich exactly what he wanted... you were the one working against your own party member.
Now we see more divisions and something else the Republicans spot lighted... the division of the Democratic supporters.
Hat tip to Liberty Pundit for point us toward the comment section of the Daily Kos (the people that claim to own the Democratic party) piece where they called the Republicans, "mischievous".
Examples of some of the comments over at Kos:
Commenter "Cheney":
Impeach Conyers ass for collusion.
Cheney again:
'cause it aint going to happen with Pelosi and Conyers in office.
And now I see the light. Pelosi doesnt want to be Vice Prez. Her hands would be tied. Imagine how cool it would be to ship her ass out of Congress and muzzled in the White House.
Two birds, one stone.
She'd be W's Bitch. Oh wait.... too late.
The comments continue along that vein.
I am reminded of a saying I read once about ripping the roof off hell and looking inside.
The Republicans ripped that roof off of hell, yesterday, and allowed the American public to take a good hard look, on C Span, at the Democrats inside.
You can see the initial reactions from the left side of the blogosphere in my post from yesterday... just for laughs!!!
Quite amusing and I once again thank Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) for the entertainment. Since I now live in AZ, you have my vote at your next election.
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