Posted on 12/06/2024 9:47:59 AM PST by MtnClimber
Pete Hegseth is being Kavanaughed. And the only people dumb enough to fall for it are Republican senators.
I was willing to hear arguments that Hegseth wasn’t the best choice for Secretary of Defense. In his 40s, he’s on his third marriage, and while the rape allegation from his visit to a conservative conference in Monterey is clearly false, I was wide open to the argument that his actions demonstrated poor judgment. I was prepared to hear an argument. Like many combat veterans, Hegseth had some post-war chaos in his life. Discussion was merited.
But the more these arguments have been made, the dumber they’ve become. We’ve seen this play, and we know the third act: more heat, less light, the descent into completely irrational ranting.
Let’s pretend to take this number at face value, for the sake of argument, though Warren is egregiously misrepresenting the estimate about unreported assaults. Let’s just look at the structure of the claim: In 2023, while Lloyd Austin was the Secretary of Defense, 29,000 troops were sexually assaulted. Therefore, Pete Hegseth must never become the Secretary of Defense.
This is the kind of argument people make when they’re piling on, in an atmosphere of hysteria. It has no logic or order to it, and it does the opposite of the thing it’s intended to do: It depicts current leadership as failures, while arguing against a course correction. Bob punched me in the face, which proves that John is very bad. This is currently the logical structure of half the “news.”
In another Martha-do-you-hear-yourself moment, Lloyd Austin himself recently attacked Hegseth for arguing that women shouldn’t serve in the combat arms:
But read this carefully, and look for the own-goal:
Women serving in combat are facing more danger than men, Austin said.
Therefore, women should serve in combat. Explain the logic, Lloyd. Amazingly, the journalist who reported Austin’s comments missed the implications, mindlessly typing up the claim that women in combat are in more danger than men, then — next paragraph! — framing that statement as a rebuke to someone who warned that the service of women in combat “made fighting more complicated.” We’re not discussing; we’re ritually lining up behind our teams.
So.
The Washington Post reports today that — brace yourself for this — pEtE hEGseTh drInKs BeeRRRR OH NO:
Several years ago, during a St. Patrick’s Day segment on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” support staff at the cable news network set up a display of beers for a holiday segment on the show. After the segment aired, Hegseth walked by the display table and drank each beer, according to two former colleagues who witnessed the incident and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive episode. The incident struck the colleagues as jarring for two reasons: One, the displayed drinks had been sitting out for hours and were stale and warm; two, the show wraps up at 10 a.m., an early hour for alcohol consumption.
Welcome home, Carrie Nation. We missed you.
So Pete Hegseth drank beer. And several people witnessed the incident! And my goodness, if there’s one thing a newspaperman won’t tolerate, it’s the consumption of intoxicants. Same for members of Congress, by the way. They’re all very sober all the time.
Same vibe, and you’ll have to click this link to watch the video:....SNIP
I hope Trump puts pressure on senators so the smear campaign does not work. The smear jobs will be done on every cabinet nomination so it is time to start playing hard ball.
GEE, I wonder what time Hillary and Nancy start chugging…..
If the GOP Women in the Senate cannot resist the “Me Too” crap pulled off by the Democrats and thus go Tribal against their base, what is the point of even nominating GOP Women?
Newsmax Greg Kelly is doing a hit job on Pete Hegseth, which seems to be a personal beef he has with Pete’s background.
Greg Kelly Calls for Hegseth to Drop Out, Backs DeSantis
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/greg-kelly-ron-desantis-pete-hegseth/2024/12/05/id/1190477/
Molehills —> Mountains
“The smear jobs will be done on every cabinet nomination so it is time to start playing hard ball.”
Get this one through and going forward have a better vetting process. In a nation of over 300 million, there are multiple qualified and capable candidates for any position and many have demonstrated impeccable character throughout their lives and careers. Why deal with aggravation, and potential defeat, putting forward with questionable backgrounds when there are better options?
Fighting for extremely flawed candidates wastes time and distracts from achieving the ultimate goal. Why waste time and energy you don’t have to?
“One, the displayed drinks had been sitting out for hours and were stale and warm;”
~~~
Out of the whole (excerpted) article, this is the only thing that compels me to comment.
Warm and flat, perhaps.
A few hours out at room temp wont make beer “stale” /nitpick
If they can't dig up some dirt, they will manufacture it.
On ANY nominee. Can you understand that?
When I was in the Navy ( Vietnam), you were weird if you didn’t drink like a fish and screw everything possible...
> The smear jobs will be done on every cabinet nomination so it is time to start playing hard ball. <
Absolutely correct. Every time a Trump nominee withdraws it damages Trump. Maybe not by much, but it’s still damaging. So it’s time to take a page from the Democrat playbook.
Dig in. And then fight back fiercely.
“Drinking a beer” and drunkenness are two very different things. Now if it is in the past and he’s stopped drinking, fine and dandy as to his current qualifications. But if he is an alcoholic and has issues with alcohol abuse at present then he would not be suited for a job like this where he needs to be on call 24/7 in a potential crisis situation. There are plenty of infantrymen who don’t get drunk and who don’t drink at all. This stereotype that everyone in the military sleeps around and gets drunk is ridiculous and demeaning.
And this isn’t exactly comparable to Kavanaugh - Hegseth knew all of these allegations, true or not, were in his background and would likely be brought to the forefront by accepting this nomination - he obviously knew about his drinking, the alleged liaisons, the lawsuit, him being forced out of leadership of two different organizations, etc. Kavanaugh was blindsided by an 11th hour allegation that he knew nothing about that supposedly occurred when he was a teenager in high school that was manufactured after the nomination just to derail it.
From history... if a candidate doesn’t have “flaws”... the Left will CREATE them.
This should be a relatively easy fight. If you can’t win this battle, you won’t win the harder battles either...
Well, you aren’t wrong. DeSantis has been floated - but the Left came up with allegations of his having flings with students while he was a teacher (unfortunately Trump himself promoted it for a time when DeSantis was still running in the primary).
They can always make something up.
In this case, though, Hegseth knew this stuff was out there to be brought up. They may be exaggerating it, but it isn’t just made up out of whole cloth.
If he is a repented and changed man as he says, and does not have an alcohol addiction which could affect his job (which can still affect you even if you renounce / repent of drunkenness) then he’s qualified.
I realize also that many of the people who have been previously confirmed to posts are just as bad and worse. the current defense secretary was MIA due to a health issue and no one was told...it would have actually been fine had they just informed and had someone else step in as the acting secretary - zero reason for the secrecy. But that could have been a disaster if a crisis had occurred needing him to make a decision.
The arguments made in this article just don’t really cut it. The headline itself just goes to stereotypes of military men all being completely uncouth and uncivilized people - that’s just not true, and is no defense of Hegseth - if anything it is more unflattering to write something like this supposedly as a defense. With supporters like this, he doesn’t need any detractors.
It is discouraging to watch how easily the smear media influences certain GOP senators.
Abraham Lincoln quote: “Find out what kind of whiskey General Grant drinks, so I can buy some of it for the rest of my Generals.”
Yep. Start releasing TRUE derogatory information about the leftist sleaze merchants.
ANY nominee, appointee, or candidate who is not a Swampocrat Beltway Insider will be portrayed as extremely flawed in the 'rat and 'ratmedia propaganda.
Unbelievable, these same pieces of s..t through the years have voted to confirm dumb,communists, morally defective RATS.
It is disgusting to watch how easily the smear media influences certain “FReepers”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.