The Ohio congressman walks back on his harsh statements against the president. |AP Photos Kucinich: Impeachment a nonstarter

Democrat Rep. Dennis Kucinich is walking back from his suggestion that President Barack Obama be impeached for authorizing air strikes against Libya without congressional approval.

Asked Thursday night if he sees support for impeachment building, the liberal Ohioan said it isn’t. “No, I don’t think that,” he told Lou Dobbs on Fox Business Network. “Impeachment is a process. That’s not going happen.”


Earlier this week, though, Kucinich appeared more determined to pursue a debate about impeaching Obama. “It would appear on its face to be an impeachable offense,” he said Monday to the liberal website Raw Story, though he acknowledged then “it doesn’t necessarily follow that simply because a president has committed an impeachable offense, that the process should start to impeach and remove him.”

In 2008, Kucinich pursued efforts to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for their roles in the Iraq war.

Though Kucinich is refining his message, floating the impeachment idea has attracted media attention and the support of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who is cosponsoring an amendment with Kucinich to defund the intervention.

Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential candidate, has also suggested that Obama may have committed an impeachable offense. “The Obama administration is committing war crimes, and if Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached,” he said.

In his Thursday interview, Kucinich said he still thinks constitutional issues surrounding the president’s authority need to be examined. “The question is, there has to be a challenge to the unconstitutionality of executive decisions that take our armed forces into combat,” he said. “And in this case, I still believe it’s important for Congress to be able to assert its right under Article 1, Section 8, its responsibility to be able to determine whether or not the United States goes into armed conflict.”