Finding Ulysses

This afternoon, Representative Dennis Kucinich brought his resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney to the floor of the House of Representatives. Almost immediately, the Democratic leadership tried to table the resolution. That takes it off the floor of the House of Representatives so that it cannot be considered for a vote, not even in committee.

Essentially, a vote in favor of tabling the resolution was a vote to destroy the resolution to impeach Cheney. Guess who voted in favor of tabling the resolution…

You guessed it. The man who represents Trumansburg and Ulysses in the United States House of Representatives, Michael Arcuri, voted to destroy the impeachment resolution.

Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives oppose impeaching George W. Bush or Dick Cheney, no matter what the criminal allegations. However, their motion to table the resolution failed. The impeachment resolution is alive.

That means that the resolution is in the House Judiciary Committee, which is run by Congressman John Conyers. That makes things tricky for the resolution. John Conyers once brought his own resolution to begin an investigation on impeachable offenses, but after that, in order to get the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, he agreed to go along with Pelosi’s pledge not to impeach no matter what.

Will Conyers stick with his pledge? Does it matter? Even though Conyers is the chairman of the committee, he’s not the dictator. It’s possible that a coalition of Democrats and Republicans on the committee could come together in sufficient numbers to, for different reasons, send the resolution back to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote of the entire body.

Whatever happens to the resolution now, there has been a vote that puts Mike Arcuri on the record against impeachment. One of the questions Ulysses Democrats must deal with now is what this means for them. Will progressive, pro-impeachment Democrats take this kick in the ribs from Congressman Arcuri, as they’ve taken kicks from him before? Or, will enough Democrats in Ulysses, and elsewhere in the district, be disgusted enough with Arcuri to put his first re-election campaign in serious jeopardy?