Big crowd gathers for House Judiciary hearing on Bush "impeachment"

A boisterous crowd has already gathered for today's hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on the case for impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has been leading the charge on the issue, and although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) have said there will be no formal impeachment hearings, they've given Kucinich and his allies a session today to make the case.

There are at least 100 people in line to attend the hearing, and the committee has announced that there will be two "overflow" rooms to accommodate everyone who wants to watch the proceedings.

The crowd is definitely in a festive mood and appears to be a merging of the anti-Iraq war and Bush-hater crowds, if they aren't already one body, anyway.

But the Capitol Police aren't expecting a lot of problems during today's session. "This is a happy crowd," one Capitol Police officer told another as they discussed arrangements for the hearing. "They love what is happening here, so it shouldn't be too bad."