Brooks: Pete Hegseth makes his pitch to be defense secretary. No qualifications? No problem

Pete Hegseth’s Senate confirmation hearing opened with a thought exercise.

What if being the least qualified guy for the job makes you the most qualified guy to serve in the Trump administration?

Hegseth, a Minneapolis-born Fox News personality with Christian nationalist tattoos on his hide and disdain for women in his heart, appeared Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. It was time to discuss how his history of binge drinking, sexual assault allegations and ousting from two separate veterans nonprofits for alleged mismanagement and misconduct qualifies him to be America’s next secretary of defense.

“Admittedly, this nomination is unconventional. The nominee is unconventional,” said Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the committee chairman. “Just like that New York developer who rode down that escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president. That may be what makes Mr. Hegseth an excellent choice.”

Democrats raked the nominee with questions about his lack of management experience; his drinking; the reported payouts he made to women who accused him of sexual assault; his extramarital affairs; his murky personal finances; his skepticism about women in the armed forces; his plans to purge the Pentagon of those he does not like; and the fact that members of his own unit flagged him as an extremist who should not be allowed to serve at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration.

Minnesota-born Republican and former Navy SEAL Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., asked how many pushups Hegseth can do.

“I did five sets of 47 this morning,” said Hegseth, who apparently tailors his workout to the incoming Trump administration.

Finally, America could have a secretary of defense who knows where to find assault weapon ammunition that isn’t woke. Just check his Instagram feed.

Like a little boy smashing GI Joes together, Hegseth outlined his vision for a “warrior culture” at the Pentagon.

“I’m straight up just saying, we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said last year, during an appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

Hegseth’s former Fox colleague and fellow Minnesotan Gretchen Carlson has spent years speaking out against a culture of workplace harassment at Fox News and other American workplaces. She found it particularly disappointing that Hegseth’s nomination is plowing ahead despite multiple accusations of sexual harassment and infidelity — including a scathing message from Hegseth’s own mother.

“The majority of the people that we hear from ... about sexual harassment and sexual misconduct are members of the military,” Carlson said during a recent interview with “PBS Newshour.”

She had hoped Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a veteran and survivor of sexual abuse, would put the brakes on the Hegseth nomination. But Ernst reportedly declined to meet with one of the women who have accused Hegseth of assault and her questions during the hearing were friendly and largely focused on cutting waste at the Pentagon — once Hegseth assured her that there would be a role for women in combat on his watch.

“Yes, women will have access to ground combat roles, given the standards remain high,” Hegseth said, while noting that those standards would be reviewed in “a gender-neutral way.”

For all his tough talk, Hegseth stammered under questioning from Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who lost both her legs while piloting a Black Hawk helicopter in combat.

America’s troops, Duckworth said, “deserve a leader who can lead them. Not a leader who wants to lower standards for himself while raising the standards for other people.”

Hegseth dreams of a military with no diversity, equity or inclusion, because, as he explained in his book: ‘’Turns out, all the ‘diversity’ recruiting messages made certain kids — white kids — feel like they’re not wanted.’’

There will be no politics at the Pentagon on Hegseth’s watch. At least, not once Hegseth weeds out anyone whose politics do not align with his own.

Hegseth may be the least qualified human ever nominated to lead our armed forces. But that, he says, is the only way to restore the military to a meritocracy.