I probably wouldn’t have voted for Pete Hegseth to be Trump’s DOD Secretary; certainly not until he answered a lot of crucial questions he never was asked. He should have been grilled about the extent of his management, oversight and negotiation experience, but the Democrats, because they have no principles, decided to use the Kavanaugh strategy to slime him (because that worked so well the first time).
Hegseth is easily the worst of Trump’s major appointments, and the fact that he was confirmed last night (by the narrowest margin possible) demonstrates that the terror expressed by the Trump Deranged that unlike last time around, the Republicans in Congress are inclined to help their party’s President achieve his goals rather than obstruct them is justified. (To that, my reaction is “Tough. You have nobody but your own party to blame, along with people like you who enabled and supported an arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, untrustworthy, and increasingly totalitarianism-embracing government.”)
This morning I decided to surf between MSNBC and CNN to hear the screams of the Axis propagandists who hang out there [Oh NOOO! ICE is really arresting illegals! Oh NOOO! Trump is making villains like Anthony Fauci pay for their own security details! Oh NOOO! Trump is killing DEI!] When they weren’t screaming about all of that, they were indignant that someone was now leading the Pentagon who could not be trusted to be ready for a crisis phone call every hour of the day, 365 days a year. These assorted partisan hacks and the Democratic party “contributors” who joined in their self-righteous lament are ethically estopped from making that complaint about Hegseth.
If the availability of the Secretary of Defense at all times is that crucial, and I won’t argue that it isn’t, then Lloyd Austin, President Biden’s Secretary of Defense for his entire term, should have been fired for cause. He wasn’t. This was probably for a number of reasons, including the fact that he is black and the fact that the President was only half there and never fired anybody. When Kamala Harris, running to succeed Biden, was asked the softball question on “The View” what she would do differently than Joe, she could have done worse than reply, “For one thing, I would fire people who don’t do their jobs well, like the Secretary of Defense when he disappeared for three days.” How many votes might that have added to her total on November 5? Instead Harris said that she would change nothing.
But I digress. Now, Mitch McConnell, the intractable Trump foe who did everything he could get away with to impede the President in his first term, made that same “3:00 phone call” argument as he explained why he voted against Hegseth. I’ll accept that from Mitch, because it’s a legitimate point. He’s not a hypocrite, at least not on this topic.
As for Pete, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed. He’s over his head and probably knows he’s over his head. That’s a good thing. I would rather not depend on someone’s determination to rise above their previous level of experience, wisdom and competence when being thrust into a job they know they are unprepared for, but sometimes human beings rise to the occasion.
Frequent readers her know my fondness for President Chester A. Arthur, a lifetime political hack who, when unexpectedly elevated to President of the United States upon the death of James Garfield, gathered all of his wits and determination, and exceeded everyone’s expectations including his own. The one exception was an unmarried middle-aged woman he had never met, confined to a wheelchair, who kept telling him in personal letters that he was up to the challenge.
Let’s see if Hegseth can emulate President Arthur. One thing he can be sure of: if he does a Lloyd Austin, this President will send him out the door with dispatch.
Ethics Alarms 
I agree with Jack and I wonder what would have happened if the Democrats would not have resorted to smear tactics and disingenuous arguments about 24/7. With the Kavanaugh hearings still fresh in their memory I think many Republican senators have have voted to confirm Hegseth, but would have not voted to confirm if Democrats had only used good-faith arguments. Once the bad faith arguments are on the table you get a reaction of damn it we cannot let these bastards win using these smear tactics because if we allow to win this way they will continue to use these tactics over and over again. In other words the vote is as much a vote on forcing the Democrats into a more cooperative style than about the qualifications of Peter Hegseth.
From someone who keeps reminding us that he went to HAAVAD is it just sour grapes that a Princeton grad is successful?
Slight correction: I believe I keep reminding you that I’m embarrassed that I have a Hahvaad diploma, which have on the floor turned front to the wall, and if someone can find the last time I said anything good about that rotting school (from which my father and sister graduated and where my mother was an assistant dean), I’d be interested to know.
Not that Princeton is much better…..
Whew, pendragger! That was incredibly uncivil, rude, unwarranted and unjustified.
Just watch; Hegseth will be very good if not great in his new position and all the naysayers will be scraping egg off their faces. You heard it here first, in print, no hiding for all to see because Batman is nothing if not brave.
Y’all have a nice weekend and keep the faith…🤠
I have concerns with all these rushed confirmations and actions.
1. Is there more to the veterans not receiving pay and reinstated to the rank they were before being dismissed for being wrongfully discharged for not taking the COVID injection? My understanding is that while still under the Biden administration, those dismissed from the military, the military asked those dismissed from service to be reinstated into the military with back pay and the same rank. Why would Hegseth make it sound like they were not receiving their back pay and not being asked back into the military with their rank as they had before?
2. There was a rush to release those in jail for the Jan. 6th incident. In that rush of not checking those arrested, there was an individual named Daniel Ball, arrested again recently for being an individual with a criminal history of known violence before the Jan. 6th arrest and the actions the individual did at the Jan.6th event, such as an explosive he used, etc. along with a weapons charge. The link is below
My concern was that this was no better than Biden’s pardons, and no one took the time to review each individual arrest, and consequently, it sounded like a violent offender was released into the public. To me, this is nothing more than sloppy preparation that places others in danger sooner or later.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/audio/us/jan-6-defendant-rearrested-2-days-after-trump-pardon-5797582?utm_source=ref_share&src_src=ref_share&utm_campaign=gv-cc&src_cmp=gv-ccIf you don’t have an account with The Epoch Times yet, you will automatically receive another email with a link that gives you free access to read the article, and also an invite to try full access to the entire website.
3. It sounds as if the new administration is not researching and finding facts before investing heavily into a project of the possible harms being recreated and a repeat of sloppy research before releasing to the public an injection concerning MRNA to combat cancer. Where are the controls, and what are the controls? This is just another vast profit maker for specific individuals /politicians about AI. Again, this taxpayer money is being thrown around without facts and necessary timelines that are needed on the human body of how it reacts to chemicals, etc., in the serums of the injectables.
Re #2: You probably saw the news story (from another anonymous source) that they were going through the J-6 defendants trying to decide who the violent one s were, and Trump got exasperated and said, “Fuck it, pardon them all.” Sounds credible.
Unlike any of Biden’s blanket pardons, as far as I know, Trump’s pardons were for the events of Jan 6, and nothing else. Am I wrong?
Just those. Although the fact that apparently some of the pardoned individuals had serious rap sheets, which should have been relevant.
People are right to wonder about Hegseth’s leadership ability for the job he now has. I do. But President Trump shows great confidence in him and, as written in the post, if Hegseth doesn’t do the job well, the President has no qualms with replacing him. This is a FAR better situation than the previous President, who hired people based more on what the candidate looked like or the candidate’s sexual proclivities than if he believed the individual was qualified.
Nearly five years ago, I was thrown into a new job with completely new systems, a completely foreign programming stack, and a completely different customer base. It was sink or swim. I learned to swim, though – as my wife will attest – the 90 days it took to learn were incredibly stressful. Maybe Pete is up to the challenge of swimming – in a pool with far more and deadly sharks than I faced.
I love the reference to Julia Sand. During my time writing the this-day-in-history site (many years ago), I published a piece about Ms. Sand. What a great woman and a great encourager!
MAYOR Pete, on the other hand…
“the Democrats, because they have no principles, decided to use the Kavanaugh strategy to slime him“
But came up juuuuuust a tad bit short…
PWS
Why did they think Hegseth wouldn’t be sufficiently available? Too many kids in the house?
Reportedly he was a partier and regularly binge drank for many years.
He’s over his head and probably knows he’s over his head. That’s a good thing. I would rather not depend on someone’s determination to rise above their previous level of experience, wisdom and competence when being thrust into a job they know they are unprepared for, but sometimes human beings rise to the occasion.
That assertion is not well founded.
In a previous life, I had been a USAF fighter pilot for a dozen years, then assigned to the Pentagon where I was put in charge of a $2B program. Since, up until that point, I was merely a glorified heavy equipment operator, I was by definition over my head.
Must have gone well enough, though. My follow on assignment was commanding a pilot training squadron.
So I have first hand experience, although clearly not to this level. But the requisites for success are the same: the ability to quickly master information at the appropriate level of abstraction, comprehend and prioritize competing priorities, reach reasoned conclusions, convincingly articulate those conclusions, and to actively seek advice.
From what I have seen of him, there appears to be no reason to suspect he is in any way incapable.
I predict he will be successful.
Its often been said that government doesn’t do much right, but I’ve marveled at the military’s ability to toss an individual into a stressful, high-stakes leadership situation and somehow get success out the other side.
Well, either success or coffins. Incentive structure is very different than that in the private sector.
They’ve confirmed Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary.
Now all Trump needs to do is issue an EA stating that border jumpers shall be classified as canines.
I wrote almost exactly the same thing on Facebook!
You’re a terrible person 😉
To be absolutely honest, it was Spuds’ idea.
You beat me to the quip as well. Good play, Willem!
I was reviewing the bio’s of past Secretaries of Defense at Historical Office > DOD History > Secretaries of Defense.
Other than George Marshall and Donald Rumsfeld, I see very little distinguishing managerial experiences among most of the other Defense Secretaries. The biggest difference, or lack of experience, between past secretaries and Hegseth is that Hegseth did not come up through the ranks of the Federal Bureaucracy. Most prior Secretaries show a variety of positions in government or acadamia.
The primary issue I have with most of these “experiences” is that the tenure of virtually all is 2 years or less. That means that the individual leaves before we can assess the quality of the decisions made in the long term and I have no idea whether these people just moved from role to role to avoid having to face evaluation or even if the moves were horizontal rather than vertical. In management, span of control is more important than budgetary control and I have no idea what each of these men had when the switched positions.
I remember how everyone fawned over General “Mad Dog” Mattis when Trump picked him because of the persona he had crafted as a general. What exceptional service did he perform as Defense Secretary? I cannot think of anything. Moreover, my understanding is that the DoD has not successfully completed an audit over at least the last 6 years. So, the issue of Hegseth’s financial management seems a bit disingenuous given that no other Secretary of Defense seemed to never be held accountable for spending billions on god knows what. I want to point out that in the DoD history noted above there is no biographical information on Lloyd Austin at all yet I do not recall anyone questioning his capacity to lead the Defense Department when he was selected on a vote of 93 yeas, 2 nays, and 5 not voting.