Rep. Schakowski: impeachment of Cheney would be overwhelmingly defeated

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I signed on, after giving it about ten seconds thought, to Dennis's resolution to impeach Dick Cheney. But here is the question for progressives who believe that Dick Cheney should be impeached: Do we want to have that vote? And, actually, I wanted to have that vote. You know, I voted in favor of having that vote. Do we want to have a vote, though, that loses overwhelmingly? That’s the fear. And that was what the Republicans were essentially saying: “Fine. Go ahead. Have your vote and see how many actually would have voted for the impeachment resolution.” I think it actually would have been pretty much of a handful of us who have signed on as co-sponsors, and I’m just not sure that it would have advanced our cause. They knew that.

AMY GOODMAN: And what about the impeachment of President Bush?

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: Well, we certainly don’t want to impeach President Bush without impeaching Cheney. I think that many of the most drastic and radical of the actions taken by this administration -- I think Dick Cheney would have no hesitation, for example, to go in and bomb Iran. So, having Cheney as the President in the interim -- now, if we did both and Nancy Pelosi were the President of the United States and that were actually feasible in the next year, I would be all for that.

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