If Hegseth deserves impeachment, make a serious effort

In less than 24 hours this week, Pete Hegseth, the former weekend Fox News anchor who currently is called the secretary of war, managed to escape impeachment charges in Congress only to be reprimanded the next morning after the annual Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. `

Hegseth, his wife and others in his group were laughing and talking loudly as they posed for photos in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a solemn military site, prompting the Army sentinel on duty to sternly deliver the standard warning: “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.”

Decorum is always in order for our governmental leaders.

Democrats, only one week after the nation gave them control of Congress starting in January, are in the midst of an unwise fight over Hegseth.

It began when dissident House Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky engineered a vote Tuesday to start impeachment proceedings against Hegseth. The GOP leadership sought to kill it. Massie and all the Democrats present voted for that procedural measure, while all Republicans present did the opposite, winning 211-204. Eleven Democrats missed the vote, including some out of town, but there were at least seven close by at an event for Democratic women, including Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen. Yet traffic stopped them from making it back to the Capitol in the short window the GOP set for the vote. If all seven had made it back and no other Republican voted, the impeachment effort would have gone forward. But there were other GOP members nearby to be summoned if needed and the party controlled the clock. That’s their playbook. Short answer, the impeachment push would have died anyway later in the evening.

Still, some Democrats are forming a circular firing squad, using this incident in their fight over leadership of the chamber. That masks a more important issue.

Most of the offenses Massie listed are policy disagreements Democrats have with President Donald Trump or ones Hegseth could have defended as following orders. Two are specific to Hegseth: Calling a second strike on a boat of suspected narco-terrorists while two men were clinging to the boat’s wreckage, and for attempting to demote Sen. Mark Kelly, an Air Force veteran and former astronaut, for telling service members they have the right to refuse illegal orders.

Hegseth is a terrible head of the Department of Defense — still its legal name — not the least of which is his purge of experienced civilian and military leaders. We have twice called on him to resign or be fired. Make this the third.

Some Democrats still want Hegseth in the dock when they get the gavel in January. Do that through investigations of his fitness to serve, and if evidence supporting impeachment is uncovered, make your case. Until then the mandate Democrats just got is to deliver programs that will improve the everyday lives of struggling Americans.