Hegseth's impeachment fails 211-204, outlives its own verdict by week's end.

…(cont) Here's the case, in the order the wire carries it, because the order's the only part of it I trust. On October 20th, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington gave Ukraine no warning before a Russian strike hit Kyiv's power plants; he called it a "denial of reality." Three days later, on October 23rd, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote Hegseth asking him to restore and expand Ukraine's access to the Starshield satellite system, warning that Kyiv's operations would be crippled without it. On November 5th, Representative Thomas Massie — who'd filed the impeachment articles back in September — told Hegseth he had a choice: resign, or face the vote. Three days after that, on November 8th, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went on television and called himself a "hard yes" on impeaching Hegseth. "He has got to go," Jeffries said. That's the Democratic leader talking — the one who'll run the floor if his party takes the chamber.

Then Tuesday came. The House voted 211 to 204 to send the articles to the Judiciary Committee instead of to the floor, which is the parliamentary way of saying the effort died, for now. Eleven Democrats missed that vote. Some told reporters it was traffic — a jam in Washington, the kind of thing that happens to a car, same as it happens to mine most mornings, belt making that noise again. The President called the outcome "the exoneration of a Great American Patriot."

That's the case as the record had it Tuesday afternoon. The wire didn't stop there, though.

That same evening — Tuesday evening, the Hill is specific about that — Representative Madeleine Dean told NewsNation she thinks "Mr. Hegseth's days are numbered." Whether it's by impeachment, she said, or the President removing him, or his own— Before that week was out, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who isn't currently seated in the chamber that would cast this vote, said that if she were, "I would vote to impeach."

I'm still on hold. The recording just switched on me — they want one more department before they'll even look at my dispute. Fine, I'll hold. But hang on, excuse me — because the same recording's got a second screen up now, and so does Washington: Fox News is reporting Hegseth could face a second impeachment push, this one over the Ukraine aid, the next time House Democrats are positioned to bring it to the floor.

So I promised myself the word only twice, and I'm sorry to come back to it, but here it is, one more time — farce. Hegseth used it in September, about the case against him. By the second week of November the Democratic leader was a hard yes, a sitting congresswoman had put a number on his days, a lawmaker who can't even cast a vote volunteered hers anyway, and Fox was already drafting the sequel.