Hegseth calls his impeachment a farce; Republicans agree, killing it a week after losing the House.

…(cont) That same day, eighteen House Democrats voted with nearly every Republican to table different impeachment articles, these against the president himself, filed by Representative Al Green.

By November 6th, the Post had Republicans turning on their own secretary. One lawmaker is quoted calling him "screwed." I wrote that down because people don't usually use that word about a man they're about to protect.

Two days later, on This Week, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the Guardian he was a "hard yes" on impeachment. His exact words, read back off the page: "He has got to go."

Then the secretary spoke. The Guardian reported Hegseth called the push "a farce and a stunt" before a single vote. The Times noted the appearance broke a monthslong drought of news briefings — he hadn't stood before cameras in months, and he broke the drought to call the case against him fake.

The Guardian put a date next to Tuesday's vote: one week after Republicans lost the House and the Senate both, their worst midterm in more than half a century. I'll read that back once: one week after.

Tuesday, the vote itself: 211 to 204, referred to committee instead of the floor. Two hundred eleven. I won't keep coming back to that number — just worth saying once, before I move on.

Eleven House Democrats missed that vote, the Examiner reported, including Nancy Pelosi. Separately, the Hill quoted Representative Melanie Stansbury saying she and some other lawmakers were blocked from reaching the Capitol by a traffic incident and a police escort — her words cover her and whoever she meant by "others," not all eleven names on the Examiner's list, and I'm leaving that distinction exactly where the paper left it.

Here's where I went for help with my own hands, because that's as far as my expertise runs. I've got a car in the garage that's needed a fan belt for two years, and I know what it's like to watch the clock while something ordinary keeps you from where you're supposed to be. A fan belt isn't a police escort, and I'm not saying they're the same trouble. I'm saying showing up is a separate fact from why you didn't.

CBS reported Monday that Massie won't file the resolution again. ABC reported the House tabled the articles Tuesday, effectively dead for this Congress. BBC reported the president welcomed the outcome, calling Hegseth a "Great American Patriot" — the same report noting Democrats can try again next year.

Oh — hold on, one more thing. The secretary called the proceeding a farce, in his own word, before the vote was counted. The man who wrote the articles says he's done writing them. The leader who called it a "hard yes" hasn't, as far as any page I'm holding shows, taken that back. So which part of this record is still open, and which part already closed itself before the month was out?