Half of Democrats favor impeaching Cheney

Dennis Kucinich

Democratic congressional leaders have tried to quash the issue to avoid embarrassment, but more than half of likely Democratic voters say Vice President Dick Cheney should be impeached and removed from office, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

The national telephone survey found 51 percent of Democrats agree Cheney should be impeached while only 22 percent disagree. Overall, 31 percent of likely voters agree, 40 percent disagree and 29 percent are not sure.

Last week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced a measure to impeach Cheney. The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee, where it likely will die.

Just 8 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of unaffiliated voters favor impeachment of the vice president, according to Rasmussen.

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The survey also found 25 percent of likely voters say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who works to have Cheney impeached. Thirty-six percent say they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate, and 28 percent say it would not influence their vote.

Kucinich's resolution said Cheney deserves to be impeached for allegedly manipulating intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaida connections to justify the attack on Iraq. The congressman also charges the vice president "openly threatened aggression" against Iran "absent any real threat to the United States."

When Kucinich introduced the bill last Tuesday, Democratic House leaders made a motion to table it in order to avoid a potentially embarrassing distraction, the New York Times reported. But a number of Republicans who disagree with Kucinich switched sides during the roll call and voted to block the tabling motion in an apparent effort to embarrass Democrats.

After the motion failed, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer motioned to refer the bill back to the House Judiciary Committee, effectively killing it. His motion succeeded by a near-party-line vote.

But Kucinich contended the 251-162 vote against tabling his impeachment measure would raise the issue's profile among voters. He expects congressional hearings to arise from the measure's referral to the Judiciary Committee that will "hold this administration accountable" for its actions in Iraq.

"The ferment that's developing at the grass-roots level is causing members to pay heed to this, and I would hope that it would send a message to the administration," Kucinich said.

Kucinich's argument for targeting the vice president and not President Bush is that Cheney should be removed first to prevent him from becoming president after Bush's term expires.

In a September visit to the Middle East, Kucinich declared he would not visit troops in Iraq during his regional tour because he considers the American military presence in Iraq to be illegal.

"I feel the United States is engaging in an illegal occupation ... I don't want to bless that occupation with my presence," Kucinich said in Lebanon, according to the Associated Press. "I will not do it."

The Ohio congressman's comments came after he praised Syria following a meeting in Damascus with President Bashar Assad.

Kucinich accused the Bush administration of destabilizing the Middle East and praised Syria for receiving Iraqi refugees.

At a speech in Chicago last April, Cheney took aim at Pelosi for her face-to-face meeting with Assad earlier in April, saying "we don't need 535 secretaries of state."

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