As Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell engineered many of the wins of Donald Trump’s first term, but he was right Friday night to finally say no to Trump in opposing the unqualified Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary. McConnell, who for years carried Trump’s water, must now continue to be an independent voice against the president’s excesses.

And that starts with a trio of other truly awful nominees: Kash Patel for FBI director, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Bobby Kennedy Jr. for secretary of health and human services.

It was McConnell, who joined with persistent Trump GOP critics, the moderates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, to vote against Hegseth, showing that the majority of senators did not want Hegseth, making for a 50-50 tally.

It was only the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance to confirm Hegseth into the awesomely powerful role for which he is ill equipped and unsuited.

Hegseth would have been rejected had one more senator disapproved. There were signs that Thom Tillis was uneasy with the “Fox & Friends” weekend host leading the Pentagon, but Tillis is up for reelection in North Carolina next year and doesn’t want a Trump-backed primary challenge.

Hegseth has now made history in being the first leader of our military who was confirmed only with a VP vote. Hegseth should have joined other rejected nominees like failed secretary of war picks Lucius Horatio Stockton in 1801, Henry Dearborn in 1815, James Madison Porter in 1844 and Thomas Ewing in 1868. And within living memory, the Senate defeated the defense secretary nomination of John Tower in 1989.

History doesn’t think less of presidents like John Adams, James Madison and George H.W. Bush for having their picks turned down, but if Hegseth fails, or does real damage, then Trump (and the Senate) will be to blame.

In a blistering statement issued after the vote, McConnell made light of Hegseth’s Army service as a qualification and invoked the names of previous Pentagon chiefs like the giant George Marshall: “Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough to fill these shoes. And ‘dust on boots’ fails even to distinguish this nominee from multiple predecessors of the last decade. Nor is it a precondition for success. Secretaries with distinguished combat experience and time in the trenches have failed at the job.

“Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests.

“Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been.

“The restoration of ‘warrior culture’ will not come from trading one set of culture warriors for another.”

Had McConnell laid this out earlier, maybe another Republican senator would have had the courage to also say no. It is clear that Hegseth would have lost a secret vote, but in having to take a public stand, they are too fearful of retribution by Trump.

But alas McConnell held his tongue and therefore, for now, we are stuck with Secretary Hegseth. We hope he doesn’t make the worst fears of McConnell a reality.

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