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GOP forces debate on Cheney impeachment
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 6, 4:21 PM ET
WASHINGTON - House Republicans, changing course midway through a vote, tried to force Democrats into a debate on a resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney on the grounds he purposely led the country into war against Iraq.
The GOP tactics reversed what had been expected to an overwhelming vote to table, or kill, the resolution by longshot Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.
Midway through the vote, with instructions from the GOP leadership, Republicans one by one changed their votes from yes — to kill the resolution — to no, trying to force the chamber into a debate and an up-or-down vote on the proposal.
At one point there were 290 votes to table. After the turnaround, the final vote was 251-162 against tabling, with 165 Republicans voting against it.
"We're going to help them out, to explain themselves," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. "We're going to give them their day in court."
Kucinich, an anti-war Democrat from Ohio, has long pushed for a vote to impeach Cheney, but has failed to win the backing of the Democratic leadership. After Kucinich introduced the resolution, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., immediately moved to table it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "has said that impeachment is off the table and that the new direction Congress is focused on responsibly and honorably redeploying our troops out of Iraq, covering 10 million uninsured children and meeting our national priorities long neglected by the Bush Administration," said her spokesman Nadeam Elshami.
The resolution said that Cheney, "in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully executive the office of vice president," had "purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests."
The 11-page resolution also charged that Cheney purposely deceived the nation about an alleged relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaida and has "openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States."
House approval of an article of impeachment sends the issue to the Senate, which has the constitutional authority to try and, with a two-thirds vote, remove a person from office.
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Well apparently the Democrats didn't want to impeach old Cheney, but the Republicans have voted to help them find their way and open up the impeachment of Dick Cheney. Obviously the democrats don't want to talk about this sort of thing and the republicans want to rub their noses in it, but thats not what I wanted to talk about.....
This is what I wanted to talk about.....
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "has said that impeachment is off the table and that the new direction Congress is focused on responsibly and honorably redeploying our troops out of Iraq, covering 10 million uninsured children and meeting our national priorities long neglected by the Bush Administration," said her spokesman Nadeam Elshami.
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This is a very interesting quote, and not beacause of the laughable political sound byte they tried to create. The funny part is the phrase 'honorably redeploy' because I've heard it before.
I used to be something of a WWII Pacific war buff, blame my Grandfather who served there as a marine. One thing the Japanese were known for was never retreating, no matter what they faced. Now I don't know if this is myth or true, but I was taught they had no word for retreat. Reguardless, no Japanese commander would ever order his men to retreat, it just wasn't in their thinking.
Well in all wars, not all battles are winable in the eyes of their commanding officer, and you will have to forgive me as I forget the officer or the battle, its been at least 20 years since I read this, but one officer came up with an interesting solution to the problem of ordering a retreat. In the face of a superior American force, he issued the following order, "Turn around and advance!"
Well its been, as I said 20 years since I've read this, and at least several years since I would have thought of this at all, but as soon as I saw 'honorably redeploy' my first thought was to that Japanese commander saying 'Turn around and advance!'
Honorably redeploy.....
If Iraq is 'unwinnable' or at least not worth winning as its apparent the democrats think, why don't they want to use the words 'retreat?' 'We have been beaten we are pulling out.' 'There is no way we can win this conflict, goodluck Iraq!'
Instead we get 'honorably redeploy' where we are leaving, yet retaining our honor. Interesting.....
There are 24 entries at dictionary.com for 'honor'
I wonder which one applies here?