John Conyers, D-Mich., is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment effort would start, and a bitter opponent of the Bush administration. But he has said that he does not intend to move forward with any impeachment effort.

The 7-0 vote by the all-Democratic council has no official weight. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said before the 2006 elections — in which Democrats regained control of Congress — that impeachment would not be on a Democratic House agenda. Pelosi could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Monica Conyers, a first term councilwoman, was unable to vote for her own resolution because she is in Hawaii for a national pension conference. Neither she nor her husband could be reached for comment.

The resolution says Bush and Cheney conspired to defraud the United States by “intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify the war.”

Detroit attorney Bill Goodman, a member of the National Lawyers Guild and an impeachment supporter, said he met Monday with Monica Conyers and the resolution’s cosponsor, Councilwoman JoAnn Watson. At that time, Goodman said, Conyers told him she was “very interested in pursuing this and would share her views with her husband.”

Goodman said the council vote was significant not only because of the ties to Conyers, but because Detroit is the largest city to date to approve a resolution endorsing impeachment.

Although widely popular among those on the left wing of the Democratic Party, mainstream party leaders generally try to avoid the subject of impeachment, fearing the public would view such a proceeding as unnecessary and distracting.

Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6604 or dbell (at) freepress.com. Staff writers Marisol Bello and Todd Spangler contributed to this report.