A Useful Idiot, Part 2

 (Part of an ongoing series detailing the manifest unfitness of Trump's Cabinet picks)

     Today, let's turn our attention to Pete Hogsbreath, a former Fox weekend talking head that Trump has "nominated" to be his Defense Secretary.

     First of all, Hogsbreath never attained a rank higher than major in the Army National Guard. The Pentagon's top spokesman, Patrick Ryder, is a major general. Furthermore, he never once came close to managing an agency that employed over 3,000,000 people, much less having any experience whatsoever in the geopolitical ramifications of the job. And, managing a massive stockpile of over 1500 nuclear weapons? Please.

Pete Hegseth's mom Penelope on Fox & Friends makes a direct appeal on behalf of her son to Trump pic.twitter.com/dsQFEuGlYg

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2024

      Secondly, Petey's moral turpitude is too obvious to ignore. Since it's obvious that Trump either doesn't care about having people in his Cabinet would in the real world wouldn't be allowed within 100 yards of an elementary school or if rape is a prerequisite, it's obvious not everyone is onboard. That includes at least six Republican senators.

 

     Now, in case you're wondering how he just popped up all of a sudden, it's not as simple as that. You see, when Trump first sleazed his way into the White House, he wanted to give Hegseth an undersecretary position. They did their version of vetting but it was a political vetting, not a criminal one. Justin Higgins, the Republican opposition researcher who'd done it (and is now a Democrat), still hasn't revealed what he'd found all those years ago but whatever it was, Trump didn't hire him. And, considering his long history of horrible personnel decisions, that's saying something.

     But the year after he was vetted, he was accused to raping a woman in California, which was investigated by the police. They chose not to press charges against him but Hegseth agreed to pay the woman an undisclosed sum of a money and pretended the encounter was consensual (Her husband and two kids were elsewhere in the hotel where the rape took place) and that he paid her off to keep his job on Fox.

     Republicans pretend to be so concerned about rapists, with publicity-thirsty clowns like Nancy Mace even promising to introduce a bill banning one transgender woman from using the Congressional restrooms. But they don't seem to care that Hegseth is just a typical Republican who can't keep it in his pants (Don't forget, his second wife divorced him when he knocked up the Fox producer who would become his third wife). Since Mace was allegedly raped back in the day, one would think she'd be more sensible to that.

     Having said that, according to the New Yorker, who'd spoken to former associates of Hogsbreath's, he apparently likes to tip the bottle a bit too much. Before 2017 when he became a talking head on Fox, Hegseth ran two small veteran's advocacy groups, Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. He was fired from both for "mismanagement of funds, sexual impropriety and reports of intoxicated behavior."

     In several cases, he "needed to be carried out of the organization’s events." In another incident, Hogsbreath "was so intoxicated he had to be physically stopped from joining dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team in November 2014."

     So, we know he's a black out drunk and alcoholic rage monster. And he single-handedly drove Vets for Freedom into the ground, having bankrupted them by spending treasury funds on parties.

     The Pentagon has the largest budget of any US government agency, in excess of $800 billion. But many Republicans don't seem to have a problem with a guy who spends money like a college freshman who just got his first student loan check running an agency with a budget of nearly a trillion dollars. He's got fabulous Max Headroom hair!

     What makes Petey's nomination a slam dunk is Mommy going out on a media blitz, even sitting in Sonny boy's old chair at Fox and Frauds and making a case for him. The problem with that is her letter to her son in 2018 that tore hm a new asshole for the shitty way he treats women. Of course, being a typically feckless right winger herself, she took back what she'd written but the damage had been done.

     This is what she'd said in part:

     “You are an abuser of women—that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego...  On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself… Is there any sense of decency left in you?”

     Obviously not, otherwise he wouldn't want to work for Donald Trump. 

     Just to hedge hers and Donnie's bets, Penelope is also asking female senators to just conveniently ignore all the rape and sexual abuse allegations for which she'd castigated her son just six years ago and pretend they don't exist. "But, he's such a nice boy!" was all she needed to add.

     And then, there's his fascist Christian supremacy beliefs.

     In the New Yorker article, he was quoted as bellowing in a bar (while drunk, of course), "KILL ALL MUSLIMS!" over and over again.

 

 

     If you have any doubts as to Petey's religious allegiances, just check out his awesome tats.

     Oh, no, that's not the look at all of a guy who's obsessed with crusades.

     So, what does Trump have to say about all this because his team didn't vet the vet? Well, thanks for asking.

     For the first time in over a year someone actually started talking about Ron DeSantis again. Yes, the "These Boots Were Made For Walking" Governor whose war on "woke" was a national punchline. He's one of three names being floated around for Defense Secretary on the strength of him being a Navy JAG at Gitmo. Yes, a guy who tore through $170,000,000 with absolutely nothing whatsoever to show for it is a much better alternative to oversee a department with a budget of nearly a trillion dollars.

     But Hogsbreath is making Donnie Dumbo look very bad and Donnie Dumbo doesn't like it when people laugh at him, as they should. So when one of his fake "nominees" starts going tits up, Donnie Dumbo does two things- First, blame the other guy for making him look like a flaccid penis then replace him. That's why DeSantis's name is coming up again like an old homicide victim bobbing up in the Okefenokee Swamp, which is sure to go over well with MAGAdonians.

     I guess the thinking is to give the Senate Armed Forces Committee a horrible nominee then replace him with someone else who will be perceived by Republican scum as someone who looks positively statesmanlike by conspicuous relief.

     But a shit sandwich is still a shit sandwich whether or not you cut off the crust.