Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell:

“It is one thing for Congressman Kucinich to use this political ploy in his presidential campaign. It is another thing to do so on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Democrat-led Congress still has not sent the president a single appropriations bill. It’s time to do so, our troops are waiting.”

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White House press secretary Dana Perino:

“This Congress has not sent a single appropriations bill to the presidents desk this year … yet, they find time to spend an entire work period on futile votes to impeach the vice president or to pass contempt citations against the president’s chief of staff and former counsel*.”

(referring to House efforts to issue citations to former White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers for ignoring legal Congressional subpoenas.)

“It is this behavior that leaves the American people shaking their head in wonder at this Congress,” Perino said.

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Steny Hoyer:

“I am surprised that Republicans would treat an issue as important as the potential impeachment of a vice president of the United States as a petty political game. It is beneath the dignity of this institution. This is a continuation of Republicans’ gotcha games that achieve nothing more than short term entertainment for themselves, while showing their disdain for the importance of the people’s business.”

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Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami called the two-hour debate “absurd.”

“It would have been one 20 minute vote to dispose of the motion, but instead Republicans switched their votes and forced the House to take two additional votes. They wasted the American peoples time and, honestly, these comments from the White House are just laughable,” Elshami said.

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So now it heads to John Conyers’ committee, where Democrats hold a 23-17 edge. If the House leadership were to greenlight it and push for it, they might be able to get 21 of those members to push it to the House floor. Most consider it doubtful, because Pelosi and Hoyer simply refuse to deal with impeachment.

But there’s two questions they need to ask themselves: are there grounds for impeachment? And is it beneficial to the interests of the citizens of this country?

I think the answer to the second question is absolutely yes, depending only on the answer to the first. If the grounds exist, it’s important to the concept that all shall be held to the law, especially a man who asserts he belongs to no branch of government, who repeatedly pushes the country towards war, whose chief of staff lied to a grand jury and was convicted of that, and who has personally profited from the Iraq War.

This isn’t at all about political games. Conyer’s committee should publicly debate the question of whether there are grounds for impeachment. If not, kill it then. But it’s time the nation consider exactly what Dick Cheney’s record is that makes so many yearn for his dismissal from office.

Has he committed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’? Killing the process now, without answering the question: that would be political gamesmanship.

In the meantime, people who believe the investigation is necessary should let their representatives know, and donate to Kucinich’s campaign to demonstrate their approval.