Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 3 October 2025
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932
Hegseth’s enablers
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
WASHINGTON – They knew, and what did they do? Now they know, and what will they do?
Republican senators knew Pete Hegseth was not qualified to be Secretary of Defense (now Secretary of War), and now, after an immature and insulting display at Quantico lecturing hundreds of generals and admirals, he has confirmed their fears.
When he faced a confirmation hearing earlier in the year, five Republican senators – Murkowski, Collins, McConnell, Tillis, and Ernst – voiced opposition. Only four of them were required in a 53-47 Republican/Democratic Senate to quash the nomination, but North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Iowa’s Joni Ernst capitulated under pressure from the White House, paving the way for Vice President Vance to cast the 51st vote to break the tie and confirm Hegseth with the thinnest possible margin for one of the most important jobs in the U.S. government.
McConnell warned his colleagues what they had wrought: “As he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been.”
The qualms those last two wavering senators had about the one-time Fox News host must have been shared by their fellow enablers in the Republican Senate, but it was a case of reelection politics over patriotism.
Senator Tillis did not have to vote for Hegseth to protect his seat. He is not running again. Same with Senator Ernst. She also bowed out and will not be running again, having not been sufficiently loyal to Trump. Both allowed themselves to be bullied into submission.
The 50 Republicans who confirmed Hegseth despite their reservations about his competence were not reassured by the embarrassing show they witnessed at Quantico. Generals and admirals summoned from the far corners of the world sat unmoved and without expression as they adhered to studied non-partisan neutrality. Yet, we can only imagine what they were thinking while enduring a lecture from an upstart who has not earned their respect and who requires constant propping up.
 Hegseth must have noticed their skepticism. A talk show host who values appearances above all else was missing the point. Undeterred and with more swagger than strategy, Hegseth told those sitting before him that if his words are “making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign.”
In what looked like a practiced imitation of the Hollywood version of General Patton, Hegseth disrespectfully lectured these career military people on grooming standards and fitness, telling them that they may not belong in polite society because they are trained to “kill people and break things,” and, in this, he revealed his immaturity and misunderstanding of the warrior ethos he claimed to promote. Career officers are neither killers nor vandals. The true warrior ethos is found in the West Point motto: “Duty, Honor, Country.”
He continued. Fitness standards will be uniform, he said, and there will be no more accommodations to promote women in combat roles. But imposing a single standard is unrealistic. This is the 21st century, and brains are valued over brawn. The American military consists of a wide variety of Military Occupational Specialties, commonly known as an MOS. These range from infantryman (MOS 11B) to Geospatial Intelligence Imagery Analyst (MOS 35G), all requiring different skill sets, but not necessarily the same physicality requirements.
Clearly, a purge is coming to root out women in general and officers who display insufficient fealty to the president. Hegseth has already ordered a 20 percent reduction in the top brass to get rid of what he calls “bloat” in the military.
What now will the Republican senators do? The Constitution offers unwieldy impeachment. Reverse jawboning is a better route. Already, there has been pushback from the Joint Chiefs over strategic planning. Add to their voices, the voices of a handful of Republican senators who muster the courage to tell the president what he does not want to hear: Hegseth must go.
 
See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
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END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND