Yeah, trump primaried him out. But there are still the “investigations” and threats that will come.
Lucy.
Charlie Brown.
Football.
I’m not sure what anyone thought was going to happen.
I think this shows that Trump maintains an iron grip on the GOP. After last week’s drubbing, I was hopeful that a few Republicans would be willing to break ranks, but even the ones who are losing their seats don’t appear ready to defy the emperor.
The Democrats, once they take power, should absolutely begin impeachment proceedings against Hegseth, if only to assemble an official record of all his malfeasance. But, honestly, of the Republicans who will be in the Senate come January, the only one I can realistically see voting to impeach is Murkowski. The rest, I’m afraid, may make noise about how they don’t like some of Hegseth’s antics, but will then make up an excuse about how impeachment isn’t the right way to go. In other words, they’ll act like their usual yellowbelly selves.
IMHO- only if we can get or at least think we can get- the 12 or so GOP votes we will need. Of course the House can call him in and grill him without Impeachment.
It’s January 7 all over again. In the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, there was bipartisan condemnation of Trump, but that died out pretty quickly. The same happened here; in the immediate aftermath of the midterm annihilation, there were Republicans turning on Trump, but it’s already dying down.
Had Massie won, he would be voting to take away grandma’s Medicare for tax cuts. He is not the good guy in this story, he’s a lame duck who threw a hissy-fit because he lost.
Note that in this Congress alone he voted with the Trump administration 87% of the time.
He’s just another loser who, you know, lost again. The best thing one can say about him is that at least he understands why he lost.
Actually, he filed the impeachment paperwork before he lost. But you’re right that he’s not a good guy; he just has a feud with another bad guy.
If anything, I’d suggest that Massie’s initiative informed Hegseth that he is on notice. He might well lose his position when the new Congress convenes in January. Or he may not. Either way, he is on precarious ground, and now he knows it.
In many ways, Hegseth reminds me of an eight-year-old playing “War” with plastic soldiers on his living-room rug. Bam! Boom! Pow! And entire platoons of plastic army men are wiped out. But what he forgets is that real American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are not plastic figures on his childhood living room rug, yet he treats them as if they were.
'Nuff said for now.
As long as they obey him, they might as well be.
He lost the primary against Trump-backed Gallrein in May , and introduced the articles of impeachment in September.
This. It would actually make sense for Republicans to back this. Throw Hegseth under the bus (and keep punching him while he’s down, “which is exactly how it should be”) and try to pretend he was the only asshole responsible for this mess.
ELEVEN House Democrats missed the vote – which would have been more than enough to defeat the motion had they been present. Several cited “traffic” as the reason they couldn’t make it in time to the vote (why were they even away from the Capitol if they knew votes were imminent?). Nancy Pelosi wasn’t even in DC.
Their dogs ate their homework. Or they were off getting an award.
This dumb thing would not have gone anywhere. Massie knew it, the Dems know it, why are people pretending otherwise?
You’re right, I forgot that the primary was so long ago.
Is this correct:
If Hegseth had been impeached this month, the trial would have been next month, and there would probably have been a majority for acquittal. And then it would have been impractical to impeach him next year, when there would be more votes for conviction, because he would already have been acquitted of the most plausible charges.
So impeaching this year was dumb.
I wonder if some Democrats, who let the procedural vote fail, know this but hesitate to say it.
There’s no double jeopardy with impeachment. It’s entirely a political act. They can impeach him again and again with the same charges.
Ted Cruz said on his podcast that Hegseth would either resign, get fired, or be impeached. Obviously he’s not going to resign, and Trump has doubled down.
You can say, Why should we listen to Ted Cruz? And sure, we shouldn’t. Be it’s not a ridiculous take. The Iran War is hugely unpopular and has been blamed in Republican circles for the Blue Wave. In normal political times, throwing a Hegseth under the bus wouldn’t be controversial. Even in these abnormal times, it really felt like there was momentum among Republicans to try to right the ship a little.
I don’t think it’s a given that this wasn’t going to go anywhere, is my point.
It’s not going anywhere under the current R/D makeup of the House and Senate, which is a bet so sure I would put a years salary on it.
Not that it matters, because, well, it didn’t get anywhere.