The Coward’s Recess: Teddy Roosevelt on the Hegseth Impeachment Dodge

By George, what has become of the American spine? The shameful spectacle on Capitol Hill this week has filled me with a profound and righteous indignation. We are witnessing a display of legislative yellow-belliedness that would make a common garden worm look robust! Speaker Mike Johnson has packed up the House of Representatives and sent them scurrying home on a seven-week recess early, all to tuck their tails and run from a privileged vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Let us look at the facts. On September 15, Representative Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth. The charges are grave indeed: waging an unauthorized war in Iran for over ninety days in flagrant violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, hiding military casualties, and defying the explicit direction of Congress to cease hostilities. Because the resolution was privileged, the rules demanded a vote within two days. What did leadership do? Instead of standing tall like men of character and debating the constitutional limits of executive war-making, Speaker Johnson slammed the doors of the Capitol shut a day early. They are hiding from their duty while fifty thousand of our brave troops remain deployed in a conflict that has dragged on far past its promised end, costing billions of dollars and precious American lives.

This is not merely a tactical blunder; it is a shameful abdication of the solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution. Congress is a co-equal branch of government, not a rubber stamp or a frightened rabbit! To mend this broken machinery, we must reform how our legislature operates. First, we must legally strip the Speaker of the unilateral power to cancel sessions to evade constitutional obligations. Second, we must fortify the War Powers Resolution with automatic, self-executing funding cuts for any military deployment that exceeds sixty days without an explicit congressional declaration of war. If a President or his war secretary wishes to spill American blood and expend our national treasure, they must look the representatives of the American people in the eye and make their case. No more backroom dodges, no more administrative hide-and-seek with the lives of our soldiers.

True patriotism demands that we face our national responsibilities with courage, not cowardice. Running home to secure reelection while our soldiers face fire in Iran under an unauthorized command is a disgrace to the uniform and the Republic. Congress must return to Washington, face the music, and hold its executive officers accountable. Anything less is a betrayal of the grand experiment in self-government. Let us stand up, speak out, and demand a legislature with a backbone!