“We knew that this vote [Impeachment] was coming, so people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote. There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues.”
— Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA).
Voters across America showed up at the polls to empower Democrats in last Tuesday’s election. In one of the first votes of consequence after the midterms, eleven Democratic Members of the House of Reprentatives failed to show up for the vote that could have led to the Impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
When Democrats show up, they win – – That message ought to be posted at the entrance to the Democratic caucus.
It was only a week ago that many Americans, tired of the war against Iran, exhausted from the consequential rising expense of gas, diesel, home heating oil, groceries, woke up with hope for a new day, upon learning that a blue wave swept America, carrying Democrats to victory in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
An historic opportunity to challenge to the war against Iran and the role of the Secretary of Defense came yesterday in the form of Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) Impeachment of Pete Hegseth. The Secretary of (illegal, undeclared) War’s projection of power is eerily reminiscent of the iconic Major T. J. “King” Kong, who rode a nuclear missile as if it were a bucking bronco, on its way to its target in Kubrick’s prescient Dr. Strangelove.
The triple-tap bombing of innocent Iranian school children on February 28, 2026 was one of many key provisions in the impeachment resolution. The totality of the Articles read as if they were written by a constitutional scholar.
The impeachment resolution contained eight Articles, any one of which would have been enough to set the stage for Hegseth’s removal from office. As a matter of fact Hegseth actually confessed to the impeachment Article One in a Tuessday morning news conference at the Pentagon when he said: “As for the Articles themselves, Iran, Maduro, Yemen, everyone was a lawful operation ordered by the Commander-in-Chief, then ordered by myself ….” (Italics for emphasis).
The dramatic moment of reckoning had arrived with the House Clerk’s reading of the eight Articles of Impeachment resolution, which took one hour and sixteen minutes. As Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove observed, Members knew the vote was coming. Most watch the floor action from televisions in their office. Democrat and Republican cloak rooms pace the vote, calling out 15, 10 and 5 minutes remaining to cast a vote, on personal voice pagers. Members had at least an hour and a half leeway on this particular vote.
The motion to refer the Impeachment to committee passed 211-204, with these 11 Democrats not voting:
Rep. Brownley
Rep. Correa
Rep. Gillen
Rep. Horsford
Rep. Jackson
Rep. Pelosi
Rep. Petterson
Rep. Stansbury
Rep. Strickland
Rep. Stevens
Rep. Wilson
The math here is painfully easy: 204 + 11 = 215, the motion fails. The vote to impeach is immediately brought forward. It wasn’t only House Republicans voting against Massie’s resolution that enabled Hegseth to escape impeachment, it was the 11 absent Democrats. They did not show up for the vote. The defeat of the procedural motion denied a second vote on the underlying impeachment bill, aimed at sending Secretary Hegseth to a trial in the Senate.
Seven of those Democrats who did not vote were recorded as voting for either or both of two subsequent bills which followed in a span of 18 minutes.
At a time when America, through funding the Israeli government, is complicit in genocide, and is enmeshed in undeclared regional war against Iran which threatens to expand, and which has killed countless innocents, this was a vote of great importance.
Additionally, this particular House (through August 31, 2026) has held fewer floor votes than any other, going back to 1994, according to a study by the organization No Labels.
Explanations are owed, not only by the eleven Members, but by Democratic leadership. The American people had a right to expect that a vote of this magnitude would be taken with the utmost seriousness, because it is directly related to an illegal, expensive, murderous war and the individual cabinet member who has claimed unique responsibility for prosecuting it.
It is fair to ask what efforts Democratic leadership made to assure attendance for this vote. Did congressional staff alert their boss to vote? Ultimately, it is the Member’s responsibility to show up, and there is a safety net: The congressional schedule, the floor action, one’s staff, the Democratic caucus, the paging system all provide clues thaat a vote is approaching.
Many of those who missed the vote on Massie’s Articles are incumbents who will be returning in the next Congress. The hope for redemption may arrive early. The impeachment of Hegseth, using Rep. Massie’s Articles for reference, should be the first item of business in Janaury of 2027, to tame the Secretary’s war mania, which hopefully will not be further expanded in the ensuing seven weeks. Those returning Members who missed yesterday’s vote should be first in line to have their votes registered.
Meanwhile, there are several critical issues remaining in this Congress which require the focused attention of Members. Vital matters remain to be resolved. They are directly related to the war in Iran and to the proposed U.S. – Israeli merger of highly sophisticated intelligence assets at a time of genocide in Gaza.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is the capstone of the Administration’s budget push for $1.5 trillion ANNUAL spending, instrumental in proliferating more war, while sacrificing domestic needs. A startling provision in the NDAA, Section 219, merges US-Israel defense technology and intelligence assets at the expense of American sovereignty. The House approved hte NDAA with the merger provision which now resides in the Senate for a decision.
Stop the wars! Protect American sovereignty! It is urgent to contact your Senators now and demand a vote against the NDAA and provisiion which permits the U.S. -Israel defense/intelligence merger.
We can only hope that some Senators will have the courage of Rep. Thomas Massie, stand up for the American people and stop the wars and the murder of innocents, before the new Congress arrives.
Let us turn our attention to the final days of a Congress, in late December, which often have the feel of a “Going Out of Business” sale. Members, eager to spend the holidays at home, cede ever more power to leadership which engages in its own type of merriment, bringing up as many bills as they can at the always sparsely attended end of a session, thereby avoiding debate and attempting to accelerate passage of only heaven knows what, in the dark.
The only way to block a further theft of the Commons during the closing sessions of the House is for Members to be vigilant, and to be present on the floor to block questionable legislation by appealing for recognition from the Speaker, and uttering aloud this almost forbidden incantation: “Reserving the Right to Object.” These words essentially block a bill from achieving further consideration.
It is great fun to attend these seemingly routine meetings at the end of congressional sessions, where leadership tidies up the People’s House and plunders it at the same time. A Member’s accomplishment can come at 11:59 pm of the session of Congress. Be ready. Be present. Be alert.
Reprinted with permission from the Kucinich Report.
