Pete Hegseth & The Art of the Smear

Plus: Hunter Biden gets off with a pardon while patriots languish in jail.

Left-wing radical Saul Alinsky wrote a book in 1971, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer, that has become the bible for activists ever since — from Tea Party conservatives to today’s Democratic Party radicals. His tactical advise for defeating political foes: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.”

Nearly 50 years later, Nancy Pelosi put it this way.

“We call it the wrap-up smear,” she explained. “You smear somebody with falsehoods and all the rest, and then you merchandise it.” She called it a self-fulfilling prophesy in which her side leaks anonymous allegations to the press, who then report the smear, and then she can sell it to the public. There are plenty of examples of such villainy in US political history — the 1800 election was really dirty — but I doubt any of the players sounded quite as giddy as Pelosi did when she boasted of the unethical tactics.

Now, these Far Left Dems — in concert with the entire military-industrial complex and the senators they ply with money and power — are targeting Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Defense. A graduate of Princeton and the school’s Army ROTC program, he joined the Minnesota National Guard and then the Army National Guard, rising to the rank of major. He was deployed three times. After serving at Guantánamo Bay, he was a platoon leader in Iraq and later taught counterinsurgency tactics in Afghanistan. Among his military honors: two Bronze Stars for “exceptionally meritorious service to the United States of America.”.

As important, he is author of The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, which outlines how he intends to reform the oh-so-woke Pentagon.

“The military was the first large, national institution to be successfully racially integrated (despite the interference of racist presidents like Woodrow Wilson). Yet today’s troops are being harassed by obligatory training grounded in Critical Race Theory, radical sex theories and gender policies that are designed to neuter our fighting forces. In the name of going forward, we are going backward, destroying our military from within. And yes, it’s intentional. Just ask all the perfectly healthy young troops the Pentagon kicked out because they wouldn’t take an experimental vaccine with unknown side effects.”

He wants a vigorous military, lethal and agile. The Left’s response: let’s Brett Kavanaugh him. You may recall that Dems smeared the Supreme Court nominee with charges of sexually assaulting a girl in high school. Christine Blasey Ford could not recall when this happened, or where, or how she got home that night. Fortunately, Kavanaugh kept a diary while in high school, which his father kept in their basement.

The smear attack has been predictable, with a dishonest media — especially the New Yorker’s Jane Meyer — using anonymous sources in search of anything that would tarnish this soldier. As the NY Post’s Karol Markowicz wrote, “He’s been unfaithful. He’s been married three times. So has the guy who just won a landslide election.” One of his tattoos is a Jerusalem cross, which the media describes as anti-Christian. As Markowicz wrote, “It’s the Brett Kavanaugh show all over again.”

So now, he is making the rounds, defending his record. Wednesday he went on the Megyn Kelly show, among others, after taking a call from President Trump.

I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers. The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of @realDonaldTrump —and me. So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth. Our warriors never back down, & neither will I. I spoke to the President–elect this morning. He said, ‘Keep going. keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.’

Asked if he was in this “all the way,” Hegseth responded, “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter. I’m here for the fighters. This is personal and passionate.” Word is a group of vets who served with him are en route to DC to lobby for his appointment. As Don Bongino said Wednesday, “Hegseth IS the fight. We lose Pete and the swamp has already won. Let your invaluable voice be heard.”

And so we will, contacting our senators and any DC Republicans we can reach. It is striking that even though their coalition had left and moderate wings — the Squad versus the Problem Solvers Caucus — the Dems always voted in lockstep. Always.

Republicans, not so much. Unless Trump can muscle the reluctant.

At the time, I worried about why Trump allowed Matt Gaetz to withdraw his name from consideration as Attorney General. Did they know something we didn’t? I hope so, otherwise it was a dreadful mistake. If Saul Alinsky and his disciples smell blood in the water, they pounce for more. Soon it will be RFK Jr., and Tulsi and Kash.

Meanwhile, despite promising Trump there would be a smooth transition, still President Biden — or whoever is acting in his name — has just signed a deal with American Federation of Government Employees, representing 42,000 workers at the Social Security Agency, to lock in work from home protections until 2029.

This ploy is intended to gum up the works for Trump’s goals to reduce the size of the federal government by sellling off half-empty offices. It’s not clear why the Social Security Agency needs 42,000 workers. Maybe Musk & Ramaswamy can just fire them.

Then comes news that the cabal running the White House — careful to leak that Biden has not been brought in to these discussions so far — is considering pre-emptive pardons for those Trump might hold accountable for their lies — Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff. No wonder they don’t want to bring Biden in yet — it will tarnish whatever legacy he thinks he has left. Though arguably, even among Dems, the Hunter Biden pardon probably has dented that beyond recognition. If Biden pardons the liars, or other family members, including himself, it will only cement his reputation for corruption. It will also prove them guilty.

Meanwhile 69-year-old Tina Peters, former Mesa County Colorado clerk, sits in jail, sentenced to nine years in prison for exposing voter fraud in the 2020 election. So does 75-year-old Paulette Harlow, a Catholic nurse who is jail for praying at an abortion clinic. And so are more than 400 Jan 6ers, some, like Ryan Samsel, without an attorney, abused by confinement in a closet for five months.

Stay strong, our dream team. We have your backs.