Lost in Washington - The Impeachment Hearing

Democrats made the mistake of scheduling Dennis Kucinich's impeachment resolution hearing on the same day the Obamessiah was being given a French kiss by Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. Consequently, nobody is paying attention to the hearing, which is just as well.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Dennis Kucinich's quest to impeach President Bush is getting an official airing in the House Judiciary Committee on Friday.

The Ohio congressman's single impeachment article is not expected to move forward, but critics of the Bush administration were taking the opportunity in a House Judiciary Committee hearing to push for removing the president from office.
The hearing began shortly after 10 a.m. ET, and it didn't take long for the call to impeach Bush to bring an applause line, if not to wade through political statements on each side of the aisle.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said the administration has committed "serious abuses, that if proven, would certainly constitute high crimes." Therefore, "The most appropriate response to this unprecedented behavior is to hold hearings for impeachment."

The line drew hoots of approval from some members of the audience, which drew a warning to the audience from Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.

"Let's restrain ourselves, please," Conyers said.

Despite several mentions early of the "I" word, Conyers explained to the audience it was not, technically, an impeachment hearing "to the regret of many." He said the House would have to vote for an impeachment inquiry to begin, a test not met by the July 15 vote to send Kucinich's impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee.

The Republicans on the committee are throughly enjoying themselves:

The top-ranked Republican on the committee, Lamar Smith of Texas, dismissed the hearing as a waste of time.

Likening the hearing to "an anger management class," Smith said, "Nothing is going to come out of this hearing with regard to impeachment. ... That's because there is no evidence to support impeachment.

He said the partisan tone of the hearing was probably one of the reasons congressional approval ratings are at historic lows, recently below 10 percent. "That makes President Bush's approval rating of 32 percent look pretty good," Smith said.

Cracking a joke at his Democratic colleagues' expense, Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., belittled the hearing, saying, "Maybe what we're here for is impeachment light' " -- a "never, never land" where Democrats lay out their accusations, but don't follow up on impeachment.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., tried to argue against the point of the hearing on a legal point.

"The framers (of the Constitution) did not intend impeachment as a political device," Pence said, adding that he believed the president has "consistently put the American people's need before his own."

It's a real moonbat festival in the House of Representatives.