unpopular opinion, but i’m glad about this. the dems hate hegseth with passion, if he was almost impeached even in a republican congress, it’s practically guaranteed he will be impeached next time anyone tries. and why would the blue tsunami not try?

the real risk would be replacing him too quickly. senate can block his replacement, that’s gonna be a major point of leverage for the upcoming democrat congress. letting the gop rush his replacement would be a blunder, it would burn up all that leverage for nothing.

those no-shows are a genuinely good strategic move. they block the impeachment for now in a deniable way, because it’s gonna go through anyway, and because you can’t replace him if you don’t impeach him first. (unless trump fires him first, but like, fat chance.) however, an impeachment in february leaves trump begging the dems for his next secdef, while an impeachment now would have him scrambling to get a new guy in before the deadline.