Ray Hartmann

If we’re not better than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, we’re in terrible trouble.

War always means innocent people dying. But civilized nations try — imperfectly, too often unsuccessfully — to limit that risk. That’s why rules of engagement exist in the first place. They are not about political correctness or bureaucratic caution. They are about preventing needless death.

Hegseth has spent years ridiculing that idea.

Long before he became Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Hegseth built a career attacking the very guardrails meant to keep wars from sliding into indiscriminate violence. As a Fox News personality and conservative activist, he mocked military lawyers who insisted on verifying targets before pulling the trigger. He sneered at the notion that American commanders should exercise caution when civilians might be nearby. He called those rules “stupid.”...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent his confirmation hearings promising senators he’d stop drinking. Based on his news conference about the Iran war on Wednesday, that might not be such a great idea.

Reporting on dead American soldiers, Hegseth suggested, is becoming the “narrative.” The public, he said, should “cut through the noise” and focus on the mission.

The “noise,” in this case, is six American lives....

Josh Hawley had me going.

When I first saw his tweet last Wednesday after two sheriff’s deputies were murdered near Springfield, Missouri, I thought we were in for another attack on the horrors of the political Left. Here’s what Hawley said:

“Two heroic deputies in my home state of Missouri were senselessly murdered by a thug with a long history of violence toward law enforcement. We need accountability for these soft-on-crime policies destroying our communities.”

Then, a few questions popped to mind....

Kristi Noem is the political gift that keeps on giving for Democrats.

They need her running the Department of Homeland Security a lot worse than Donald Trump does. And she does run it worse than anyone else.

Democrats don’t require new messaging for November. They need cameras. They need live feeds. They need a 24/7 loop of Noem and her comically transparent paramour Corey Lewandowski blowing up whatever fleeting hope Republicans have of holding power in the midterms — short of stealing the election....

On Wednesday night, the U.S. House delivered a stinging, bipartisan rebuke to President Donald Trump’s trade agenda, voting 219-211 to rescind the “fentanyl emergency” tariffs on Canadian imports.

Six Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Kevin Kiley (R-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and Jeff Hurd (R-CO) — joined every Democrat but one to pass the resolution. It was a historic moment: the first time Trump’s own House has formally voted to terminate a national emergency used to justify tariffs.

Missouri Republicans decided keeping the president happy is their top priority. Politically, that’s easily rationalized. This was a symbolic vote unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate, and it’s never getting signed by Trump....