Update at bottom: House Republicans vote against Democratic-led motion to end debate on impeachment

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In an unexpected move, Republicans in the House of Representatives on Tuesday voted against a measure to table debate on an impeachment measure brought by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

The motion had been brought by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who sought to effectively kill the resolution.

"Impeachment is not on the agenda," Rep. Hoyer had told Fox News earlier."We have some major priorities. We need to focus on those."

Although the roll call vote had initially appeared to favor Hoyer's motion to table, Congressional Quarterly's Ed Epstein told CSPAN that Republicans had switched their votes at the last minute in an attempt to embarrass the Democratic leadership, who is not keen on seeing further action on the impeachment resolution.

"Midway through the vote, with instructions from the GOP leadership, Republicans one by one changed their votes from yes -- to kill the resolution -- to no, trying to force the chamber into a debate and an up-or-down vote on the proposal," reports the Washington Post.

The final vote count on the measure was 251-162. The House later voted to send the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee.

Developing...

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Kucinich_not_stopping_with_Cheney_plans_1106.html