“How will you make sure we can build more planes than China?”
Hegs: “Blather!”
“CULTURAL MARXISM!!!” for the win.
Does Cultural Marxism mean anything other than Jewish?
Mark Kelly: “I don’t think one round of pointless questions is enough, can we have another?”
“No.”
“Anonymous smears” must be the new phrase for “I plead the fifth”.
Kelly (reciting a litany of Hegseth’s drunken episodes): True or false?
Hegseth: Anonymous smears.
Is “anonymous smears” the new, “I’m taking the Fifth”?
ETA for @WOOKINPANUB : Great minds are thinking alike! 
I think we need to come up with a drink named “anonymous smears”.
Banks (R): “Here’s another sloppy blojob.”
“Five million man-hours!”
That’s like, less than two hours per soldier per year. But math is hard.
It’s the new “locker-room talk.”
Sheehy: Okay, this time, I’m just going to leave the softballs sitting here. Just kick them."
Hegs: Still misses one.
They were all about the most simple aspects of the military. “What size round does an M-3 fire?” “How many push-ups can you do?”
And it’s over. I’m standing by my prediction of a Gaetz level of zero.
So when does the confirmation vote take place? I’m not expecting today, but within a week? Within two weeks? In ten days?
I have no doubt he will be confirmed, I’m just curious as to when.
That’s not really clear.
Unless something horrendous pops up over the next few days, I expect him to be confirmed fairly easily.
Reasoning: it would take four GOP senators to tank his nomination. If Ernst couldn’t find three others to gang up with to make him unviable, she’s not going to fall on her sword as a matter of principle, thereby angering President Musk and the First Lady Donald.
But if there had been a set of four senators to block his appointment along with all Democrats, they would have first tried to back-channel that stance to the White House in hopes that the nomination could be stopped that way (rather like what happened to Gaetz). And if that had happened, there would be all kinds of hit pieces and threats in the political press planted by Friends of Donald to try to get them to resume toeing the line.
I haven’t seen anything like that recently, so I would conclude he’ll go in 53-47 (or perhaps the White House will throw Ernst a bone and let her have a nay vote on the floor in exchange for her voting yea in committee).
Prediction: barring one hell of a January surprise, you’re looking at our new SecDef.
Yep. And I’m pretty sure he’s the worst of a bad lot. If credible reports of drunkenness, sexual harassment and sexual assault, along with his odious on-the-record views of current policies in the military, embracing of war criminals, and history of mismanagement of his charities aren’t enough to tank him, no one else is going to lose, either.
Who doesn’t have a few youthful indiscretions?
Well, he’ll be working for a convicted felon who is an adjucated rapist, has a history of embracing criminals, history of racism and mismanagement of charities, casinos, schools, other businesses, so I’m not sure what you would expect.
Yup. Trump makes him look like a boy scout.
(Atlantic says this is a gift link. I’m not positive about that.)
From the article:
…
Hegseth’s liabilities can be divided into four categories, each of them individually disqualifying:
- personal behavior, including allegations of drunkenness on the job, of maintaining a hostile workplace, and of sexual assault
- lack of managerial experience, or at least positive managerial experience (According to The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, Hegseth ran two tiny advocacy groups so poorly that he was forced to step down.)
- a disregard for the laws of war and a habit of excusing the actions of convicted war criminals
- an enthusiasm for domestic political combat that blends into an inability to distinguish Democrats from enemy combatants
Hegseth’s strategy today was to evade these problems altogether. In this, he had the full cooperation of the committee’s Republican majority. If you’ve ever had media training for a television appearance, a common piece of advice is to use the prompt to get to whatever point you wish to make, rather than focus on answering the question.
…
Democrats tried to probe Hegseth’s long record, only to meet endless evasions. Hegseth has categorically denied having sexually assaulted or harassed anybody. Senator Tim Kaine asked him whether the alleged behavior, if true, would be disqualifying. Hegseth refused to say, calling the question hypothetical. When Kaine asked whether spousal abuse would be disqualifying, Hegseth also declined to answer, likewise refusing to opine about the relevance of multiple alleged episodes of drunkenness on the job.
Hegseth has promised to abstain from drinking completely if confirmed. It is a puzzling vow given his unwillingness to concede that drinking on the job would be a bad habit for someone who runs the nation’s military.
…
Good summary. If you can stomach it. This is only the beginning.