Today is Veterans Day. Last night, the U.S. House voted to block an immediate impeachment vote against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The timing is an accident. The contrast isn’t.
So let’s start with the part that’s easy to say. To every person who has worn this country’s uniform, whether you served two years or thirty, stateside or overseas, in peacetime or in combat: Thank you for your service.
It’s worth remembering what that service was pledged to. Every enlisted member and every officer swears an oath, and the first loyalty in it is to the Constitution of the United States. Ahead of any president. Ahead of any party. A document, and the ideals written into it.
That ordering matters more this year than most.
The Oath Has No Discharge Date
Every Saturday, so many of us stand against what Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are doing to this country. And every Saturday, veterans are part of that crowd.
These are people who already gave the country years of their lives. Nobody would fault them for spending a Saturday on something else. Instead they stand on a street corner holding a sign in November weather, doing the unglamorous civilian version of the job they signed up for.
Their presence provides gravity. When a veteran holds a sign about the rule of law, it’s impossible to wave off as naïve. They know what a lawful order is. They know the chain of command is supposed to answer to something above it.
And they understand something the recruiting posters leave out: The oath doesn’t expire when the uniform comes off.
That’s what service looks like when it’s working. Loyalty to the country’s ideals, which sometimes means holding the people in charge to account, especially when those people would rather you didn’t.
To our veterans: Thank you. Again.
What The House Chose To Block
Which brings us to Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth is a veteran too (he served in the Army National Guard, with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan). That’s exactly why the contrast is useful. Service isn’t a credential you earn once and carry forever. It’s a practice, and it has to be renewed every time someone hands you power.
On Tuesday, the House had a chance to ask whether Hegseth has kept up that practice as Secretary of Defense. It declined.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth. Rather than vote on the charges themselves, the House voted 211–204 to refer the resolution to the Judiciary Committee, which effectively shelves it for the rest of this Congress. According to the official House roll call, 210 Republicans and one independent voted to refer it. Massie was the only Republican to vote no, joining all 203 Democrats who voted. Eighteen members didn’t vote at all.
The kind of vote matters here. Hegseth wasn’t acquitted, and he wasn’t exonerated. Nobody voted on whether the allegations are true. NPR reports that the vote all but guarantees the resolution won’t advance before this session ends. Referral to committee is the move an institution makes when it would rather not say yes or no out loud.
So what’s in the articles? Massie’s eight articles allege violations involving:
The war in Iran: Three articles allege violations of the War Powers Resolution, including continuing military operations without congressional authorization.
Civilian casualties: Hegseth allegedly disregarded legally mandated protections for civilians, including in connection with a deadly strike on an Iranian school.
Extrajudicial killings: U.S. military strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Venezuela: An allegedly unauthorized military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Yemen: Unauthorized military operations and civilian deaths during the 2025 campaign against Houthi forces.
Retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly: Hegseth allegedly abused his authority by pursuing punitive action against Kelly over his public statements about unlawful military orders.
Reuters has a breakdown of all eight charges. Hegseth denies wrongdoing and calls the allegations partisan policy disagreements rather than impeachable offenses. The Trump administration formally opposed the resolution and urged Republicans to send it to committee.
That last charge deserves a second look on Veterans Day. Mark Kelly is a veteran too: A Navy combat pilot before he was an astronaut and a senator. Put the allegation in plain terms and it reads like this: One veteran said out loud what the oath requires, that service members must not follow unlawful orders. Another veteran, the one holding the power, went after him for saying it.
That’s the gap between the two kinds of service, in a single article of impeachment.
None of this is over. The effort will likely return in January, when Democrats take control of the House and Senate after last week’s midterms. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has endorsed impeaching Hegseth, and after Tuesday’s vote he said, “This is not the end of it. It’s just the beginning.”
Massie, who lost his primary and leaves Congress in January, says he won’t reintroduce the resolution, but he plans to force a separate vote on congressional war powers. Democrats have also promised investigations into Hegseth’s leadership of the Pentagon. CBS News has more on the vote and the reaction.
A Coleman, Inc. Assist
Hegseth didn’t get to the Pentagon on his own.
When he went before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January 2025, former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, the last Republican to represent Minnesota in the Senate, was at his side. The Star Tribune’s coverage of the hearing shows the two of them together in the hearing room. Coleman had been helping guide Hegseth through the confirmation process, and he introduced the Forest Lake native as a “son of Minnesota,” pitching him as an unconventional pick who could bring a new approach to running the department. Hegseth called Coleman a friend and mentor.
The confirmation was close. Vice President JD Vance had to break a 50–50 tie to get Hegseth over the line. In a vote that tight, a well-connected sherpa isn’t a footnote.
And Coleman kept vouching. When Democrats called for Hegseth to resign later in 2025, Coleman dismissed those calls.
Here’s where it comes home. Norm Coleman is the father-in-law of Julia Coleman, who represents District 48 in the Minnesota Senate.
Political networks are real, and this one runs from a Senate hearing room in Washington to our own state senate district. When the reckoning Jeffries promised arrives in January, it’s reasonable to ask the people closest to Hegseth’s rise what they make of how it turned out.
Two Kinds Of Service
So here’s the contrast, as plainly as I can put it.
On Saturday, veterans who hold no office and answer to no one will stand on a corner because they believe the Constitution still means something. On Tuesday, a veteran who now runs the Pentagon had his conduct shielded from a vote by the very people whose job is to hold him accountable.
One kind of service asks for accountability. The other works hard to avoid it.
To every veteran, and especially to the ones who kept the oath long after the uniform came off: Thank you. You’re reminding the rest of us what the job actually is.
Thanks To Dan Kessler
This sign from last Saturday says it all:
Chaska Protests
Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]
Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]
Chanhassen Protests
Every Saturday: 1st & 3rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.
Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.
2nd, 4th and 5th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78th and Kerber Boulevard.
Sign library is available.
Norwood Young America
Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)
Victoria
Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.
Waconia
Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]
SW Protectors
Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.
Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]
Such good writing!
Thank you, David! we appreciated your update! We’ll be there Saturday❣️