Democrats sit weeks away from seizing control of the House. They’ve spent months promising a blizzard of investigations, impeachments, and aggressive oversight designed to finally hold the Trump administration “accountable.” That word – accountability – rolls off their tongues like a campaign reflex at this point.
But before they’ve so much as touched the gavel, they’ve gifted us a preview of how that righteous crusade will actually play out. Spoiler: it involves bumper-to-bumper traffic on Independence Avenue and a whole lot of apologizing.
From Fox News:
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., apologized in a social media video Wednesday for missing a key House vote on an effort to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying she encountered heavy traffic and a police motorcade while trying to reach the Capitol.
“Let me start by saying, I am so sorry,” Stansbury said in the video posted Wednesday. “There is no one who is more disappointed in myself than me, that I was not here the moment that gavel dropped.”
The House voted 211-204 on Tuesday to refer Rep. Thomas Massie’s impeachment resolution against Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing the effort. Stansbury was one of eleven Democrats who failed to show. She blamed “horrific” rush hour congestion and a police motorcade blocking both lanes. According to her own account, she could see the Capitol building from her car. Just couldn’t reach it. Remarkable.
The backstory makes it worse. Stansbury and several other missing Democrats were returning from an “Elect Democratic Women” networking event roughly 1.5 miles from the Capitol. Other lawmakers caught in the same snarl abandoned their vehicles and walked. Stansbury apparently did not consider that an option.
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway
Here’s the detail that strips away whatever drama remained. Stansbury herself volunteered that Democrats lacked the votes to advance impeachment even with full attendance. The Senate would need a two-thirds supermajority to convict – a mathematical fantasy.
So the entire exercise was performance art. Stansbury dutifully filed her vote in the Congressional Record after the gavel fell, a gesture carrying all the constitutional weight of a sternly worded tweet. Hegseth, for his part, didn’t bother with niceties at the Pentagon. “This is not patriotism,” he said. “This is sabotage.”
A preview of January
Sen. Ted Cruz has already predicted that Democrats will impeach Hegseth once they control the House. He’s probably right. But consider the party now preparing to wield that grave constitutional authority – a party whose members couldn’t organize a mile-and-a-half car ride for a vote they called essential to the republic.
The excuse-making machine is already warmed up, and Democrats haven’t even been sworn in. Accountability, they keep assuring us, is just around the corner. Apparently it’s stuck in traffic.
Key Takeaways
- Rep. Stansbury missed a critical Hegseth impeachment vote and blamed DC rush hour traffic.
- Eleven absent Democrats had been attending a networking event 1.5 miles from the Capitol.
- Stansbury admitted Democrats lacked the votes regardless – exposing the effort as pure theater.
- The excuse-making has started before Democrats even pick up the gavel in January.
