Why aren’t extra Republican senators against Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of protection, notably in gentle of recent allegations, delivered in a sworn affidavit this week by his former sister-in-law, of extreme ingesting and “abusive” conduct in his second marriage ?
The plain reply is get together loyalty. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush picked John Tower, a former Republican senator from Texas, to function secretary of protection. Like Hegseth, he was a army veteran who had been dogged by costs of womanizing and heavy ingesting. In contrast to Hegseth, he had top-level expertise in protection issues, together with the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Companies Committee.
A historical past of heavy ingesting ought to be disqualifying in almost any management position, by no means thoughts one with tasks as huge and consequential because the Pentagon’s. Even so, just one Republican senator — Kansas’s Nancy Kassebaum — voted in opposition to Tower, who went down in defeat, 47 to 53. If Hegseth’s candidacy, which may come to a vote as early as Friday, is opposed by any Republican, it’ll almost certainly be from one other independent-minded lady, Maine’s Susan Collins.
(By way of his lawyer, Hegseth has denied his former sister-in-law’s claims, and denied as properly that he has points with alcohol. In a press release to NBC Information, his ex-wife said, “There was no bodily abuse in my marriage.”)
Within the case of Hegseth, the facility of get together loyalty is compounded by three further elements: worry of Trump, the Cult of MAGA and the boomerang impact of liberal scorn.
As to the primary: At the very least Kassebaum didn’t must worry a social-media fusillade from Bush, and Bush would have been an excessive amount of of a gentleman to do greater than fume in non-public over her vote. Right this moment, any Republican senator who defies Trump dangers not simply public mockery and belittlement from the president, however threats of a main problem, too.
Then there’s the MAGA cult, whose bro tradition Hegseth typifies: the large tattoos, womanizing and fervent Christian piety. When Hegseth questions the capability of girls to serve in fight, or when he’s quoted as having as soon as drunkenly chanted, “Kill all Muslims! Kill all Muslims!” (which Hegseth said final week was an nameless false cost), it doesn’t dim his star in MAGA world. As a substitute, it indicators that he’s dependable. That’s a bond that neither Trump nor many of the G.O.P. caucus will wish to mess with.
However nothing will do extra to steer Republican senators to help Hegseth than the torrent of scorn now pouring over him from the organs of the perceived institution. In December, The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer printed a devastating exposé on Hegseth. In a distinct period (say, 10 years in the past) the article would have destroyed his probabilities. As a substitute, it resuscitated a candidacy that, for a short second, seemed lifeless on arrival within the Senate. Related unflattering reporting by different information organizations solely additional abetted his comeback.
That doesn’t imply journalists shouldn’t do our jobs. It simply signifies that, on this ethical and mental local weather, we shouldn’t count on it to make a whit of political distinction.
