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No, Mike Castle Didn’t Vote to Impeach President Bush

By Mary Katharine Ham

As the Republican primary for the Senate seat from Delaware manages to become even more heated than it’s been thus far, the newest charge of O’Donnell backers is that Rep. Mike Castle voted to impeach President George W. Bush.

Those backers are referring to this vote, taken in June 2008. As you can see from the roll call, fully 24 Republicans voted to impeach President Bush, including conservatives like Pete King of New York and Kevin Brady of Texas. One imagines that would have been rather big news had it happened.

But it didn’t happen. The vote in question was on a motion to refer Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee, where most of the Republicans who voted on it calcluated it would die a slow death, with no one willing to give it time in the committee.

And, there it did die. Powerline:

There you have it. Mike Castle never voted to impeach President Bush; no such vote ever occurred on the floor of the House. He did vote to commit goofball Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee, where it died, as intended, a slow death. And Castle’s office said that it opposed impeachment because “they believed there weren’t any crimes committed by the Bush administration.”

From a contemporaneous news article on the vote (via Jim Geraghty):

More: ”By a 251-166 vote, the House sent the 35-count articles of impeachment to the Judiciary Committee, which is expected to let it die without further action. While the vote technically forces the measure to the committee for consideration, it also means the full House will avoid having to debate and vote on impeaching the 43d president.”

Castle’s not conservative, but this accusation is just not true.

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