"I've not had occasion..."

How to survive a Senate confirmation hearing

Before I begin my regularly scheduled Monday piece, I want to acknowledge some comments I received in response to the essay I posted on Saturday. It's important for me to do so, particularly because today's post is essentially a continuation of the last one.

A few readers pointed to what they perceived as a disconnect between my arguing against the discriminatory nature of DEI and what they seem to view as my support of "an entire cabinet of people whose qualifications are highly suspect. Surely there are people better qualified than his picks."

One referred to my support of Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary as somehow "antithetical" to my professed aversion to DEI initiatives.

I responded, not only by acknowledging my apprehensions about Hegseth's appointment but also by enumerating them.

I agreed that he's maybe too young, maybe not adequately experienced, and that he has some other miscellaneous baggage that might be of concern.

Yeah, his relationship with alcohol appears to be one such issue. Not that I'm excusing it, but for what it's worth, Ulysses S. Grant was a notorious binge drinker, and he managed not to screw the pooch.

Choosing his cabinet is the president's prerogative, and you don't have to look too far into recent administrations —both Democrat and Republican— to find what could easily be considered questionable choices for cabinet positions.

For instance, what business did Leon Panetta have serving as both CIA Director and Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration? Panetta got out of the army as a 1st lieutenant and went right into politics.

(For what it's worth, Pete Hegseth made it to major.)

Panetta spent 16 years in Congress but never served on any committee related to either defense or intelligence.

Or, go back to Bill Clinton, whose first Defense Secretary was Les Aspin, a super-well-educated guy who never served a day in uniform and was an outspoken dove who was opposed to US military intervention overseas.

He was succeeded by William Perry, who, though he served as an Army officer for five years, somehow managed not to rise above the rank of 2nd lieutenant.

Ask your military friends if that's even possible.

Then came William Cohen, another guy with no military experience who believed himself better qualified to prosecute the 1999 war in Kosovo than the Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, whom he fired.

Now, while you might find a couple of Trump's cabinet choices a bit cringe-worthy, consider that he chose Scott Bessent to serve as Secretary of the Treasury.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

A graduate of Yale, Bessent is a brilliant economist, and highly successful macro investor and hedge fund manager.

Oh, yeah. He also happens to be gay. In fact, he's the first openly gay treasury secretary and the highest-ranking openly LGBT person in American history, being fifth in the presidential line of succession.

However, he wasn't chosen for the post because he's gay but because the president believes him to be the most qualified person for the job.

So, do I give a shit that the Treasury Secretary is gay? Of course not. I'm too busy being impressed by how accomplished the dude is, and I hope he absolutely crushes it.

That's the difference between choosing to hire a gay, black, brown, male, female, or trans person and being forced to do so.

If you owned a business, would you appreciate being told what the ethnic and gender makeup of your workforce must look like? Or, would you rather choose the most qualified employees, irrespective of race, gender or sexual orientation?

After all, whatever happened to Dr. King's admonition that we judge people "by the content of their character"?

I won't apologize for believing that DEI initiatives run counter to that spirit, that they are inherently discriminatory and have a divisive, resentment-inducing effect rather than a unifying or uplifting one.

And, if left unchecked, they can lead to dysfunctional absurdity, as you'll see in this clip from Sunday’s Democratic National Committee elections.

Okay, onto Monday's essay.

Judge Kato Crews

As I believe I've mentioned in the past, I am not an attorney, and I don't play one on TV.