Pete Hegseth is being “Kavenaughed”. That isn’t surprising. In fact, had he not been smeared and maligned relentlessly I would have suspected a Mancherian Canidate was nominated. No – the fact that the smears started within minutes of his nomination was an indication that Hegseth is the disrupter America needs to lead the Department of Defense.
In June I ago I wrote a review of Hegseth’s book The War on Warriors. Hegseth pulled no punches. The rot at DOD goes deep and starts at the top. Llyod Austin leads the department. One will recall that Austin disappeared for a entire week. Only when people noticed after several days did Austin “reappear”. He had been flat on his back in a hospital bed. His excuse was a “my bad”. The administration didn’t move to remove Austin who simply disappeared for a week.
In The War of Warriors, Hegseth points to Austin’s appointment of Bishop Garrison to run what was titled. “Countering Extremism Working Group.” Garrett is a Critical Race theorist and a severe ideologue. Garrison was tasked with finding and rooting out “extremists” in the military. Extremist aka” White Supremacists. Yes, the Garrison’s group found some. And it found other “extremist”. Out of the 2.1 MILLION active-duty personnel, 100 people were found to have extremist views. 100. That’s a case rate of .005 percent”, with the actual number being .000047.
I wrote:
Hegseth observes that general officers are never held to account for abject failure. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a debacle. Marines and Sailors were not allowed to be proactive to prevent the eventual suicide bomber from entering Abbey Gate and then that general-officer decision killed 13 service members and scores more were scarred for life. What was the response to the failure? General officers game-planned a strike in “retaliation”. That strike killed a U.N. worker and seven children. Although generals who made those decisions knew almost immediately that they blew up a bunch of children, they lied about it.
Were any generals fired? No – just the opposite. They were promoted. All of them.
Lieutenant General Christopher Donahue was nominated for his fourth star, but his promote was held up. But, predictably, politics-as-usual forced his promotion through. The current DOD rewards incompetence and it rewards those who are willing to play the game. Christopher Donahue deserved to be fired, not promoted.
Hegseth has openly criticized the DOD. He is openly critical of generals in charge when they care more about their next promotion than the men and women who serve. He’s critical of the administration of the department’s wasteful spending. Hegseth would disrupt the billion-dollar weapons-of -war industry. So – Hegseth must be destroyed. The Smear Machine has been activated.
On Wednesday, Hegseth submitted to an interview with Megyn Kelly. He addressed the multiple accusations, ranging from the initial rape claim to new “drunkenness on the job” claims. The rape claim was quickly debunked with actual facts. Like Bett Kavanaugh’s accuser – actual facts, turned that story into non-story. The accuser’s claims had no support in fact or logic, so the Smear Machine moved on to other fits of fantasy. Stories of drunkenness. One such story reported by the New Yorker claimed that Hegseth was drunk and jumped onto a strip bar stage. Hegseth wasn’t even in the state when he was alleged to have been a dancing on a strip bar stage. The Smear Machine will moved on.
The accusations of being drunk at work while employed at Fox News were reported by “anonymous” sources. And, as quickly, that story was refuted by named sources. Multiple present and former Fox employees. Hegseth answered the claims but also said: “look at the tape”. The Smear Machine moved on.
There was a claim of “financial impropriety” at veterans’ 501C3’s. Hegseth explained what happened and why. Considering that the current DOD spent $9,000 on chair and 4.6 million dollars on crab and lobsters – maybe they should “sit” this one out – in a $9,000 chair. The Smear Machine moved on.
It’s all a smear. It’s all designed to throw mud and force him to withdraw or for Trump to drop him. The smear isn’t designed to tell the truth, it is only designed to hurt Hegseth by throwing enough mud that he withdraws. Kavanaugh had to go through this too. Like the Kavanaugh smear, none of it is based on facts. The Smear Machine saw Kavanaugh as a threat to the status quo so he needed to be ruined. Hegseth is also a threat to “politics as usual, but at DOD that means he’s a threat to the gravy train of billions in appropriation money. DOD toadies and the industrial complex are deathly afraid that their way of doing business, the way of collecting giant checks and riding in private jets is about to be disrupted. Maybe, even ended. So, they must destroy Hegseth. This isn’t about “principal”. It has nothing to do with Hegseth. It’s about money, and power and their desire to keep it. Hegseth is in the way.
Hegseth has Trump’s full support. He also has the support of his family (principally his wife) and friends. He is the disrupter I want at the DOD.
The resources of the Smear Machine are vast. Generals loath him. Democrats hate. Soldiers love him. All of that tells me, Hegseth needs to be confirmed.