Letter to the Editor: A Cowardly Senate Capitulates to Trump

The square-jawed blowhard cultural warrior Pete Hegseth went first this week in the Washington confirmation dance.  The forty-four year old coiffured television personality is, unfortunately, in real life, the Trump nominee to be Secretary of Defense.  Hegseth assured the Senate Armed Services Committee he is taking on this big job because he cares about the well being of the nearly two million men and women in uniform he will lead, but his real purpose was to put Capitol Hill on notice he and President Trump will unilaterally change out the DOD leadership, policies, and priorities.  No specifics on how and when, only a promise DEI -diversity, equity, and inclusion – will be booted out of the ranks worldwide. In the world according to Hegseth all the Pentagon challenges, be those budgetary, China, recruitment and retention, RFP’s, cost overruns, or inept bureaucrats are because of DEI and JAG lawyers.

Hegseth arrived on the Hill exuding the confidence of one who knows he has the votes. His cheering fans which also included several committee senators, were clearly ready to anoint the glib nominee. The committee chairman from Mississippi actually described the empty suit nominee as a breath of fresh air, but many saw an artful dodger out to please the man who nominated him.

At times it was difficult to discern if we were witnessing the next coming of fire and brimstone warrior Billy Sunday or the lusty sinner patriot Elmer Gantry. The pious Hegseth repeatedly invoked his lord Jesus Christ and CEO role model Donald Trump, especially when tough and substantive questions finally came from senators on the dais. The nominee seemed confident if he just took those doubting Thomas senators and their rude questions about ASEAN countries and audits and expertise to his lord in prayer and looked to the Senate Republican majority for a party line vote to deliver him from harm he would be carried to the promised land with sweeping views in the R ring on the other side of the Potomac where the inept generals and admirals who had once disparaged warriors like him would soon have to stand and address him as Mr. Secretary.

That may well be the outcome for this artful dodger, at least for the short term.The most troubling aspect about the likely Hegseth outcome is the committee’s failure, Democrats as well as Republicans, to get to the heart of the matter — Mr. Hegseth’s honesty and character, his thin qualifications, and the elephant in the hearing room that was never explicitly addressed in language most Americans can understand.  Plainly put: is there a serious drinking problem or not?  Mr. Hegseth flatly refused to go there in the hearing with Virginia’s Senator Tim Kaine who focused on the topic.  How could he?  While President Trump might well appreciate a married man’s fancy for the ladies, excessive drinking could well be a disqualifying factor for the new president and the country.  If there had been a full field and complete FBI investigation with witnesses, this troubling question could have been addressed and put to bed one way or another.  Instead, the matter will linger unanswered in the record and follow Hegseth to the pentagon. No doubt Mr. Hegseth, if confirmed, will proclaim the Senate exonerated him.

While the nominee reluctantly admits he once had an occasional drinking issue, he insists there is no problem today, that anyone, be they loved ones or colleagues, claiming he ever behaved badly because of drinking is engaged in a smear campaign. Somehow, perhaps miraculously, through the grace of his lord, the nominee suggests that any temporary misuse of alcohol simply went away, and, to alleviate concerns senators may have after he becomes Defense Secretary, he promised, but only if confirmed, he will never ever take a drink again.

From seventeen years of living in a household with an alcoholic father every day and attending AA meetings with him periodically over another ten years, I respectfully suggest that those of us who have experienced knowing people who abuse alcohol are very familiar with the conditional promise, “if only I could I could get… I will never again take another.”  And in this case, “if I am confirmed to be U.S. Secretary of Defense I will not take one drink.”  Sure. Right.

Never is only until there is a “worthy” exception to never: setbacks, a much needed celebration in the private plane with a handful of trusted colleagues and aides, threats, exhaustion, birthdays, deaths… whatever.  And that ends in a specular binge that will be difficult to keep under wraps.

Some appreciate that those who know about drinking problematically enough to be discussed and debated in the largest public spheres, and who want to “manage the drinking issue” come to understand what is required is trying to not take a drink for carefully limited periods, say today, the next 45 minutes, one hour, or right now. Never trust never around alcohol.

Mr. Hegseth’s extraordinary conditional promise to the senate to never ever take another drink should scare the hell out of every senator and the  Trump White House.

Aubrey Sarvis