COMMENTARY:

Impeaching Cheney First. Finally!

Kucinich's bill will go to the Judiciary Committee, where Chairman John Conyers (R-MI) and the other members will have to decide whether to request subpoena powers and to begin a hearing into impeachable offenses by the vice president.

Kucinich's action marks a major step forward for impeachment activists, who have been frustrated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has repeatedly stated that she has no interest in having the House hold impeachment hearings against president or vice president (and who has been leaning hard on Democratic caucus members in the House not to file impeachment bills).

By bucking Pelosi and filing his bill, Kucinich may force the mainstream corporate media to start discussing the idea. There has been a virtual blackout on impeachment in the media, which has not even been asking the question in polls, since a year ago, when Pelosi made it clear she had no interest in impeachment.

Kucinich's move comes as citizens across the country are bringing impeachment resolutions to town meetings, city councils, Democratic Party county and state committees, and even state legislatures--and getting them passed.

The Democratic Party Establishment has been resisting impeachment, fearing that it could "turn off" independent voters, although the few polls that have been conducted suggest that a majority of Americans, and even not a few Republicans, favor impeaching the president. But as the administration's scandals have grown in number and seriousness, from financial chicanery to voter suppression to political firings of federal prosecutors to illegal spying on citizens, and as the president's War in Iraq has lurched from bad to catastrophic, public pressure is mounting for Democrats to take tougher action.

Kucinich's bill may not in itself put Bush's impeachment back on the Congressional table, but it could whet the public's appetite for more substantial fare.

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Another book is of CounterPunch columns, titled This Can't Be Happening!, is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff's latest book is The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office, co-authored by Barbara Olshansky. Visit his website for more information. Lindorff may be reached at dlindorff@yahoo.com. This story is published in the Baltimore Chronicle with permission of the author.