12 thoughts on “Ethics Quiz: The Hegseth Hearing, Part I”
I found Tim Kaine’s line of questioning grossly unethical. This is especially obnoxious given Biden’s known proclivities with his daughter other women and the baby sitter that eventually became his First Lady as well as Bill Clinton’s proclivities . Kaine never had a problem with either of those two.
I will go a bit farther to say Hegseth should have responded to Gillibrands demands for women in combat roles that he will be happy to put them in combat roles if qualified and Gillibrand should initiate a bill to require females to register with selective service so that combat opportunities are equitably provided.
Finally, Hirono sounded inebriated as she demanded answers bout the unsubstantiated reports of Hegseth’s drinking.
It indeed looked very competent, more competent than the responses. He definitely found a way to heat up that collar. But zero points on fair, respectful, or professional.
Allegations are not convictions, false allegations are extremely common in contested divorces, and rarely do settlements coincide with admissions of guilt. The statement about his mother was especially below the belt since his mother had retracted it of her own free will shortly after making it.
While I feel questions like the one Sen. Kaine asked are not worthwhile questions, I also have low expectations of the kabuki show that is Congress. It is like working at a sewage plant and looking for a bit of gold… will you find it? Yep, but you have to dig through a lot fecal matter to get it. Which is one of the reasons I present you with a bit of gold (at least from a comedic angle).
During his speaking time, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) turned the questions of drinking and infidelity on his fellow lawmakers.
“How many senators have shown up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job?” Mullin asked.
“And then how many senators do you know have [gotten] a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No, because it’s for show.”
Wait. Wasn’t it the Clintonistas who lectured us we had to be more like “the Europeans” and consider marital infidelity a “big nothing burger?” Shouldn’t Tim Kaine be scolding himself and his fellows for being so quaint and unenlightened?
Well, of course. That’s just one of the things wrong with Kaine’s obnoxious questioning. The Democratic party has always been the party of “The heart wants what the heart wants,” free love, do your own thing and “if the sex is consensual, nothing can be wrong with it.” “Love is love”! It defended Bill Clinton, who built his presidency on the lie that he and Hillary were a loving team while he was cheating on her all the while—-and Bill was still more admirable than that icon of the Donkeys, JFK. LBJ was famously unfaithful too; and FDR. Now the Democratic Party’s position is that adultery is disqualifying? And Kaine was Hillary’s VP choice—he not only enabled the Clinton lie, he enabled it and participated in it.
As I say there listening to that asshole, I wished that Hegseth shot back at him what I just wrote.
There is also ample reports of HRC committing domestic abuse on Bill that Kaine felt would be disqualifying. Just type in Hillary Clinton throws ashtray in google.
I’ve always thought the richest, defining irony of William Jefferson Clinton is the fact he wanted to grow up to be Jack Kennedy, succeeded in doing so, but then was not granted carte blanche with women as he should have been, being a Kennedy and everything. Unlimited, unreported sport fucking was what he was owed! But it didn’t ever happen! I don’t think he’s ever recovered from that shock. Now, whether he expected Hill to play the part of Jackie is another question. How he got involved with that woman, Hillary Clinton, remains a mystery to me. What kind of self-destructive death wish caused him to hitch himself to that ball and chain?
I don’t know whether the line of questioning is inherently unethical. It might be appropriate if the person was campaigning on family values, or if Trump had… But the reality is that America elected a serial cheater on his third wife, in a vacuum: America broadly has spoken: No one really cares about this. It’s a distraction. Move on.
I do think that this line of questioning from Tim Kaine specifically is obviously unethical. Kaine needs a servant to follow him around like Marcus Arelius, but instead of whispering “You’re just a man”, this servant would whisper “You were Hillary’s running mate”. People who tie their brand to the Clintons like that ought to be ethically estopped from kvetching about anyone else’s moral failings.
So, why did Trump turn to an unconventional candidate like Pete Hegseth?
Well, it is being reported that Jamie Mannina was fired from Booz Allen Hamilton for claiming that he is working with a large group of retired generals and admirals to undermine the Trump administration. He also claimed to be advising current military leaders in the Joint Chiefs Staff Conference Room.
Perhaps you have to choose a Pete Hegseth when the ‘qualified’ candidates are all likely to be untrustworthy or outright traitors.
Of course, this came about as a result of a James O’Keefe undercover operation. I find it fascinating that people who are former top government advisors and FBI agentd will just say things like “I am working with a bunch of former generals, admirals, and current military personnel to undermine the US government under Trump and doing so in a specific secure facility in the Pentagon” to people they barely know. That tells me that they all are complete morons and/or this type of thing is discussed openly among our ‘civil servants’ and military personnel. It is unlikely that they are all morons. This suggests that ‘everyone knows’ these things, but only James O’Keefe brings it to the public’s attention.
I especially liked when Hedspeth shut Sen. Warren down: “Senator, I’m not a general.” Her reaction was delicious, knowing she had been obliterated by this young tattooed preening upstart.
The Dems have been known to throw out “What would Jesus do?” But they often forget that Jesus also said, “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
I start from the proposition that all in power have had at one time or another been unfaithful, because the narcissism that drives them to seek power drives them to infidelity.
Ethics Alarms 
I found Tim Kaine’s line of questioning grossly unethical. This is especially obnoxious given Biden’s known proclivities with his daughter other women and the baby sitter that eventually became his First Lady as well as Bill Clinton’s proclivities . Kaine never had a problem with either of those two.
I will go a bit farther to say Hegseth should have responded to Gillibrands demands for women in combat roles that he will be happy to put them in combat roles if qualified and Gillibrand should initiate a bill to require females to register with selective service so that combat opportunities are equitably provided.
Finally, Hirono sounded inebriated as she demanded answers bout the unsubstantiated reports of Hegseth’s drinking.
It indeed looked very competent, more competent than the responses. He definitely found a way to heat up that collar. But zero points on fair, respectful, or professional.
Allegations are not convictions, false allegations are extremely common in contested divorces, and rarely do settlements coincide with admissions of guilt. The statement about his mother was especially below the belt since his mother had retracted it of her own free will shortly after making it.
While I feel questions like the one Sen. Kaine asked are not worthwhile questions, I also have low expectations of the kabuki show that is Congress. It is like working at a sewage plant and looking for a bit of gold… will you find it? Yep, but you have to dig through a lot fecal matter to get it. Which is one of the reasons I present you with a bit of gold (at least from a comedic angle).
During his speaking time, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) turned the questions of drinking and infidelity on his fellow lawmakers.
“How many senators have shown up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job?” Mullin asked.
“And then how many senators do you know have [gotten] a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No, because it’s for show.”
Wait. Wasn’t it the Clintonistas who lectured us we had to be more like “the Europeans” and consider marital infidelity a “big nothing burger?” Shouldn’t Tim Kaine be scolding himself and his fellows for being so quaint and unenlightened?
Well, of course. That’s just one of the things wrong with Kaine’s obnoxious questioning. The Democratic party has always been the party of “The heart wants what the heart wants,” free love, do your own thing and “if the sex is consensual, nothing can be wrong with it.” “Love is love”! It defended Bill Clinton, who built his presidency on the lie that he and Hillary were a loving team while he was cheating on her all the while—-and Bill was still more admirable than that icon of the Donkeys, JFK. LBJ was famously unfaithful too; and FDR. Now the Democratic Party’s position is that adultery is disqualifying? And Kaine was Hillary’s VP choice—he not only enabled the Clinton lie, he enabled it and participated in it.
As I say there listening to that asshole, I wished that Hegseth shot back at him what I just wrote.
There is also ample reports of HRC committing domestic abuse on Bill that Kaine felt would be disqualifying. Just type in Hillary Clinton throws ashtray in google.
I’ve always thought the richest, defining irony of William Jefferson Clinton is the fact he wanted to grow up to be Jack Kennedy, succeeded in doing so, but then was not granted carte blanche with women as he should have been, being a Kennedy and everything. Unlimited, unreported sport fucking was what he was owed! But it didn’t ever happen! I don’t think he’s ever recovered from that shock. Now, whether he expected Hill to play the part of Jackie is another question. How he got involved with that woman, Hillary Clinton, remains a mystery to me. What kind of self-destructive death wish caused him to hitch himself to that ball and chain?
I don’t know whether the line of questioning is inherently unethical. It might be appropriate if the person was campaigning on family values, or if Trump had… But the reality is that America elected a serial cheater on his third wife, in a vacuum: America broadly has spoken: No one really cares about this. It’s a distraction. Move on.
I do think that this line of questioning from Tim Kaine specifically is obviously unethical. Kaine needs a servant to follow him around like Marcus Arelius, but instead of whispering “You’re just a man”, this servant would whisper “You were Hillary’s running mate”. People who tie their brand to the Clintons like that ought to be ethically estopped from kvetching about anyone else’s moral failings.
Bull’s eye!
So, why did Trump turn to an unconventional candidate like Pete Hegseth?
Well, it is being reported that Jamie Mannina was fired from Booz Allen Hamilton for claiming that he is working with a large group of retired generals and admirals to undermine the Trump administration. He also claimed to be advising current military leaders in the Joint Chiefs Staff Conference Room.
Perhaps you have to choose a Pete Hegseth when the ‘qualified’ candidates are all likely to be untrustworthy or outright traitors.
Of course, this came about as a result of a James O’Keefe undercover operation. I find it fascinating that people who are former top government advisors and FBI agentd will just say things like “I am working with a bunch of former generals, admirals, and current military personnel to undermine the US government under Trump and doing so in a specific secure facility in the Pentagon” to people they barely know. That tells me that they all are complete morons and/or this type of thing is discussed openly among our ‘civil servants’ and military personnel. It is unlikely that they are all morons. This suggests that ‘everyone knows’ these things, but only James O’Keefe brings it to the public’s attention.
I especially liked when Hedspeth shut Sen. Warren down: “Senator, I’m not a general.” Her reaction was delicious, knowing she had been obliterated by this young tattooed preening upstart.
jvb
The Dems have been known to throw out “What would Jesus do?” But they often forget that Jesus also said, “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
I start from the proposition that all in power have had at one time or another been unfaithful, because the narcissism that drives them to seek power drives them to infidelity.