After promising last week that he'd mark President Bush's final "State of the Union" speech today by introducing articles of impeachment against Bush, Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced he's postponing the effort.

Kucinich said he met with members of the House Judiciary Committee after making last week's impeachment pledge on the House of Representatives floor, and came away "hopeful there will be an inquiry by the Judiciary Committee."

"I will give them the opportunity to proceed before introducing articles of impeachment," Kucinich said in a statement issued by his office. The House Judiciary Committee's spokeswoman did not respond to The Plain Dealer's request for comment.

Last year, Kucinich introduced a measure to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney that has collected 24 cosponsors. His November effort to bring the matter before the full House of Representatives won support from Republicans who wanted to embarrass House Democratic leaders, but was eventually referred to the Judicary Committee.

Kucinich told The Plain Dealer editorial board last week that nine members of the House Judiciary Committee favor his bid to impeach Cheney. But that's shy of a majority; the committee has 23 Democrats and 17 Republicans.

"I do not believe that there will be an impeachment this year -- I don't think that will happen - but I do think that the questions relating to an inquiry of both the president and the vice president are important so that our nation has a real understanding of the effort that was made, a consistent effort, to mislead the people into supporting a war," Kucinich said.