GOP Plays the Dems Like a Cheap Violin on the Cheney Resolution

The GOP members in the House did some swift maneuvering and completely snookered the Dems on "Spaceman" Kucinich's Cheney impeachment resolution. Here's what happened as blogged by The Weekly Standard and Michelle Malkin:

At 2:53 (according to C-SPAN) the House began a 15 minute vote on whether to table. It seemed that a decisive majority of Republicans and Democrats would vote to kill the resolution until, at the last minute, Republicans began to switch votes against tabling it. That is, they voted to give Kucinich the chance to make his case. Now, more than an hour later, Democrats have just closed the vote--with the House voting against tabling the measure.

The current tally now shows 170 yeas, 242 nays, and 21 not voting. The nays now include 164 Republicans. It does indeed seem to me that the GOP is maneuvering to embarrass the House leadership and defeat Hoyer’s motion to table the nutroots impeachment resolution.

4:31 Update: Looks like the Democrats successfully regrouped after that first vote surprised them. The House just voted 218-194 to send Kucinich's impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee. This effectively kills the bill, preventing a debate on impeachment.

It's interesting that on such a weighty question as impeaching the vice president of the United States, votes can change so quickly. While the roll calls are not yet available, it seems there were plenty of Democrats who voted to go forward with impeachment when they thought it would fail, who suddenly voted against impeachment when it mattered. I guess it was all just about politics after all -- even for the supposed 'true believers.'

The Hill is giving GOP Congressman John Shadegg credit for the strategy to put the Dems on the spot. Nice work, John!