Defeat of the ‘Seth
If I were a real professional, I would have experts on speed dial. There would be people in the know and reliable sources to talk me through the mechanics of Signal and what would prompt someone to use it for business. I would know if anyone in Pete Hegseth’s position had ever shared military secrets with his brother. It sounds absurd, but maybe I’m wrong.
As it is, I’m a provincial rabbi in Oklahoma and I’m trying to write an editorial every day. I barely have time to pour a bowl of Crispix, let alone make contact with people who know things. And who, exactly, would those people be, who would share time and energy with a provincial rabbi? I pound out these entries in the first slot of the day so that I can get something up in time for my deadline, a self-imposed fiction that I nevertheless take seriously.
What I do know is that Pete Hegseth is a perfect idiot. Let’s just say that you were an inexperienced imbecile who had shredded two tiny agencies which fate had placed in your hands. You’re a problem drinker with a tendency toward rage, especially when it comes to women in your orbit. And you are clearly not a Master of the Universe, but a failed ‘Seth Warrior in a Galaxy Far Away. More like an extra in Spaceballs IV.
Anyone at all could write this script. You decide for obscure and self-destructive reasons to install uncredentialed software on your desktop computer. You do it yourself at your desk at the Pentagon. There’s a good chance that someone who hates your guts will reveal the dirty facts to the nice folks in the press. Everyone around you will begin to run for the exits as people start talking about the flush of your “career.” Are rules really for other people and not you, Peter H.? Maybe at Veterans for Freedom, but not at the Pentagon. This is, as they say, overdetermined.
I know people argue that Trump will hold on to The ‘Seth, but that seems unlikely, even if he’s vowed that there will be no “scalps.” The thing about Trump is that he’s got very good instincts, at least when it comes to the scrum of scandal. At the moment he sees the media frenzy cresting, he will announce Hegseth’s exit on X or Truth Social. After that, it’s the Parade of the Bankers’ Boxes.
In my view, it couldn’t happen a moment too soon.