Top congressional Democrats found themselves in a jam.
One of their big selling points in the mid-terms was how corrupt and unprincipled Trump and his MAGA movement had become. Democrats salivated at the prospect of re-initiating lawfare — investigations, impeachments — against administration officials and supporters.
But there was a wrinkle. Before the new session could start — indeed, before all mid-term votes were counted — they were given the opportunity to impeach Secretary of Defense (“War”) Pete Hegseth.
Unfortunately for them, there were a few problems with the whole enterprise.
First, it came from Representative Thomas Massie, who was not and is not (nor is ever likely to become) a Democrat. In Congress, doing good only countsif you can take the credit. Share credit with the most libertarian member in the House? Not hardly.
Second, Massie targeted longstanding practices of modern warfare, bringing “eight impeachment articles against Hegseth,” explains Newsweek, “three of which allege Hegseth has waged war against Iran in violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which limits the White House’s power to use the U.S. military in foreign wars without congressional approval.”
The Democratic elite is not against the modish practice of war — where presidents commit U.S. forces abroad willy-nilly — they are against Republicans.
Massie’s impeachment articles were too principled.
What a jam.
How to respond? When a motion to dismiss Massie’s resolution came up, many Democrats didn’t show up for the vote.
“Eleven Democrats missed a consequential vote in the House Tuesday on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, allowing Republicans to band together and shut down the effort,” The Hill summarizes. While a majority of these tardy pols offered a variety of excuses, “at least five who said traffic issues prevented them from voting in time.”
So the political jam was solved by a traffic jam!
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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