Mondo Bizarro: Rogers Supports Cheney Impeachment

With coffee firmly in hand, I was taking the usual morning ramble through the InterTubes when I came across Paul Kane's Capitol Briefing in the on-line Washington Post:

UPDATE: Hoyer: 'Impeachment ... Not on Our Agenda'

After the vote on the impeachment resolution, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) unequivocally said he expects no action taken by the Judiciary Committee to consider the Kucinich articles of impeachment against Vice President Cheney. "The speaker and I have both said impeachment, either of the president or the vice president, is not on our agenda," Hoyer told Capitol Briefing. [skip] ... any impeachment proceedings would merely divert attention from the Democratic agenda of trying to actually halt the Iraq war and domestic items such as expanding health insurance for poor children.

OK, not much of a surprise there. They've had enough trouble getting a dozen extra votes to override the SCHIP veto(es), much less take on an impeachment trial.

But wait -- it gets interesting:

• Just four Republicans - Wayne Gilchrest (Md.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Ron Paul (Tex.) and Mike Rogers (Mich.) - voted in favor of sending the resolution to committee. Gilchrest, Jones and Paul have all opposed the Iraq war, not surprising for them to be potentially supportive of impeachment proceedings. Rogers, however, has been a loyal Republican on Iraq war votes. (emphasis mine)

?????

There's two ways to look at this. Either (A) Mike Rogers was kidnapped by aliens and had a conscience implant, or (B) he is once again spending his time on political maneuvers instead of the job he's paid to do for the residents of Michigan's 8th.

No prize for guessing which one, but just to be sure I went back to read Kane's original post:

After initially having more than enough votes to kill the resolution - the "yea" tally to table impeachment topped out at 291 - Republicans decided they had a chance to politically shame Democrats into a full debate on the sensitive issue. Republicans gleefully said they wanted the debate to show the public how many Democrats would actually support impeaching Cheney, which they consider a move supported only by a fringe element of anti-war activists.

More than 120 members, predominantly Republicans, then switched their votes in favor of holding a one-hour debate on the issue, with a final vote of 251-162 supporting a debate on impeachment. Rather than allow a debate fraught with political risk, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) moved to send the Kucinich resolution to the Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), has publicly speculated about impeaching the president or vice president but has declined taking any action since taking the gavel in January.

Defusing any chance of an actual impeachment debate today, the House then voted 218-194 to send the motion to Conyers's committee, with Democrats overwhelmingly supporting the move. (emphasis mine)

Well, that makes tactical sense for the Dems and they voted decisively (214 to 5) in favor -- a "yes" vote meant that they could avoid a debate. But what about the four Republicans who joined them, voting against the GOP (189 to 4)? Especially for Rogers, who has firmly supported Bush on all aspects of the Iraq War (torturing, funding, Constitution-trampling, etc.)

Dear readers, pick the headline you'd most like to see in the Press & Argus, Freep or LSJ:

(1) Rogers Supports Kucinich

(2) Rogers Votes to Impeach Cheney

(3) Rogers Sides With Democrats

Email me your fave future headline by Friday night, and I'll post the winner on Saturday. Yay!

For triple bonus points, include your best conspiracy theory on the rationale for Rogers' vote.

Have fun!