I Guess We’re Going Have to Deal with Pete Hegseth for Another Two Months

3 min readWell, as of Tuesday evening, we learned that we will continue to be blessed with Secretary of Talking About War Pete Hegseth and his raging, bubbling hormones for at least two more months. The Republicans in the House of Representatives, undoubtedly exhausted from leaking anonymously what a shtunk Hegseth is, ran and hid when it was time to vote on Rep. Thomas Massie's resolution to impeach Hegseth and get his hands off the American military. From Politico:The 211-204 procedural vote killed the effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and ensured it would not move any further this Congress. Massie—who was the only Republican voting to keep the effort alive—had accused the Pentagon chief of eight charges that he alleged amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors. “Republicans admit why they lost the election, but they’re paralyzed and can’t do anything to correct for it,” Massie said after the vote. “And I think that’s kind of a theme up here is that people know what the right thing is. They just can’t bring themselves to it because there’s some other political reality.”Tuesday began with another bravura tantrum from Hegseth, who held a press availability in order to stomp and shout. From The New York Times: He predicted that those who seek to impeach him would fail as they did twice with Mr. Trump, a tacit acknowledgment that the impeachment effort has support from more than “one disgruntled guy.” “They will fail again, and if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week,” Mr. Hegseth said....That Mr. Hegseth scheduled the news conference appeared to be a measure of how much he feels the pressure to defend himself. Mr. Hegseth has not addressed reporters at the Pentagon since May, not even when a Navy commander was killed in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea on July 1 or when three U.S. soldiers were killed in an Iranian missile attack on a base in Jordan on July 17. On Tuesday, the defense secretary took questions only from media outlets widely viewed as conservative or friendly to the Trump administration.“It’s a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Time for one man’s final days in Congress to try to do damage to this president, this country and, most irresponsibly, the warriors who defend it.”At that point, the Republicans were still flexing their independence.Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, warned that Mr. Hegseth faced two likely outcomes from the impeachment effort. “Either Hegseth is going to step down, either he will resign voluntarily, or Trump will fire him,” he said in his podcast on Monday. “Or if that does not happen, I think it is extremely likely, if not certain, that the House will impeach him.”Oh, Ted, you sweet, innocent child. It's been a decade since the president insulted your wife and you still think he hasn't stolen the conscience of your party.Even with the midterm losses, nearly all House Republicans backed the embattled Pentagon chief, even those who lost seats due to the unpopularity of the Iran war.Some conflicted Republicans ultimately opted against impeaching Hegseth despite dissatisfaction with the Pentagon chief. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retiring Armed Services Committee member who has clashed with the Trump administration, said he disagreed with Massie’s reasons for attempting to impeach Hegseth.Let us also commend the eleven Democratic members who got stuck in traffic and missed the vote entirely. Very strong work there, gang. And for those people longing for the leadership of Nancy Pelosi should note that one of the eleven Democrats who missed the vote was ... Nancy Pelosi. This was a banjaxed moment comparable to Mitch McConnell's decision to let the Democrats haul all the water on Impeachment II back in 2021.Putative Speaker-elect Hakeem Jeffries said that Tuesday's vote is "just the beginning." However, if it were up to me, I would give up on trying to impeach Hegseth on the charges relating to the launching of the war in Iran. Congressional war powers? That horse left the barn back halfway through the last century. I'd concentrate on his dreadful mismanagement of the Pentagon, particularly his purge of minority and female flag officers. Still, this was a body blow to Jeffries' prospects. "Go play in traffic" is not a viable political axiom.