Hegseth Minus Two

Today Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voted against advancing Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense. So the nomination moved forward on a 51-49 vote.

It’s too bad: Hegseth has been the object of a vicious and unprincipled smear campaign by the Democrats, and Republicans need to stand firm against this kind of thing. The Democrats’ most recent smear, trotting out an ex-sister-in-law of Hegseth to make allegations that Pete’s former wife refuted on the record, represents some kind of new low.

But Murkowski and Collins are squishes, and Murkowski, at least, is disloyal. It is too bad that a state like Alaska can’t send two solid conservatives to the Senate. You don’t see this happen with blue state Democrats.

On the final confirmation vote, Pete can afford to lose one more GOP senator, as JD Vance would cast the deciding vote in favor of confirmation. Of course, all Democrats will vote against Pete: they don’t have a loyalty problem in their caucus.

I don’t know of any reason to expect another Republican defection, but we will soon find out: Hegseth’s confirmation vote will likely take place tomorrow evening.

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