Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump cares a lot about corrupting the Department of Justice. For him, it's a two-fer; DoJ attorneys who are compliant lackeys WILL go after his "enemies" and WON'T go after him and his cronies. So, it's not too surprising that a disproportionate number of the really awful appointments made in this administration are to be found somewhere in that portion of the bureaucracy.
At the same time, the DoJ doesn't have a monopoly on lousy Trump appointments. There were actually two pretty big news stories of this sort yesterday, both of them very predictable. To start, and as expected, Paul Ingrassia—he of the self-admitted "occasional Nazi streak"—has withdrawn from consideration to be the head of the White House Office of Special Counsel. The Senate made clear he would not be confirmed and, in fact, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) hinted that his chamber might not even hold confirmation hearings. So, Ingrassia had little choice but to fall on his Seitengewehr 42. He still has a job in the White House (as liaison to DHS) and there's no reason to believe he's going to be removed from that post. Though he should be nervous if Secretary Kristi Noem asks him to join her in that gravel pit over there.
And then there is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose service surely horrifies any American, Republican or Democrat, who is not an aspiring fascist. Yesterday, the Washington Times, which is a generally pro-Trump publication, ran an item headlined "'He lost us': Generals, senior officers say trust in Hegseth has evaporated."
As readers can surely guess, the major source of consternation among the top brass was the dick-waving session
speech that Hegseth summoned them to Virginia to witness. "It was a massive waste of time... If he ever had us, he lost
us," one general told the newspaper. Another, speaking not only of the speech, but of various MAGA/anti-woke policy
changes, decreed "The theater of it all is below our institution." A third said that Hegseth is already hurting the
nation's military readiness: "Across the services, we are bleeding talent, talented generals and flag officers, for what
appears to be the opposite of a meritocracy... "
We entirely believe the newspaper's reporting. While the Washington Times is usually pro-Trump, what it really is, in the end, is neocon. So, there is pretty much nothing the staff loves more than the military. Meanwhile, general officers are not going to go on the record with their opinions, as they have spent decades embracing the very important notion that the military is above politics. At the same time, nobody who rises to that high rank is shy about speaking their mind, especially when they are cranky. The exact way we would expect them to manage these two competing impulses, particularly if they want to communicate to the White House and the GOP that Hegseth needs to go, would be to speak off the record to the preeminent conservative publication in D.C., and that's the Washington Times.
In any case, congratulations to the Secretary on his new policy designed to muzzle the press and stifle negative reporting about him and his leadership of the Pentagon. That policy is clearly working very well. (Z)