I'm sharing this clip because it reveals a lot more than it seems to reveal at first blush.

Pete Hegseth knows he can't go to Congress without getting clobbered, because he's doing his job poorly. On a standard grading scale, he gets an F minus.

He doesn't even try to engage with oversight panels. He knows it's pointless, because they have a different definition for his job than he does. So he treats it as a fun game, mocking and dissembling and running out the clock.

But occasionally, like any cat with a ball of yarn, he bats it errantly and can't retrieve it. That's what happened in this clip.

Let me explain.

Being a cabinet officer in this Admin is like being in the mob. The big boss made you a lieutenant to do his bidding and ignore everyone else. If Jesus himself appears and gives you a commandment the boss wouldn't like, you tell Jesus to lace up his sandals and climb back into his Honda, even if he does not speak of his own Accord.

Just like the mob, you can kill the wrong people, commit crimes, abuse drugs, cheat on your spouse, get into official trouble, and disrespect anyone you want. So long as you maintain the good graces of the boss, you are protected.

But if you lose that protection, the end is swift and sudden. It's not your enemies who dispatch you, it's your friends. And there is no warning. You find out when you read it online.

That sort of fear is doubly inflammatory for paranoiacs.

This routine exchange with Sen. Mark Kelly put Hegseth way out over his skis. Kelly manages to frame his questions deftly, making any answer damaging. Hegseth is suddenly a turkey choosing between getting stuffed and becoming a casserole.

Kelly gets Hegseth to admit that it will take YEARS to replenish the stocks of certain precision weapons disproportionately expended in ONE MONTH in the US war to support Israel's strategy in Iran.

Hegseth's demeanor shifts. His shoulders tighten. His body language becomes more defensive and his ninja-level verbal dexterity dampens.

But the dead giveaway comes later.

Shortly after this hearing, Kelly repeated Hegseth's own words, almost verbatim. Pete responded by mobilizing a criminal investigation of Kelly's remarks, claiming the Senator unlawfully divulged classified information.

This is the second time Kelly has touched a Hegseth nerve. And the only nerves Pete has are those signaling potential trouble with the boss.

The precision stockpile admission is a collector's item. A rare truth told by Pete in a public forum. The weapon systems being discussed cannot be fast-tracked. They're built with special materials, labour, and tooling. They cost enough to exceed God's overdraft.

Clearly, Hegseth's been forced to say something at variance with assurances he has given the President. Or he's already in hot water over this issue because of the earnest lobbying behind the scenes by concerned defense leaders who understand the massive vulnerability we've created with reckless strategic myopathy.

That's the theatrical backdrop. What's happening on stage is good reason for any American to be pissed off now and worried about later.

I don't recognize anything American or even remotely responsible about the weaponization of executive power to stop a US Senator from doing his job.

But it's Hegseth's habitual targeting of veterans I find more disgusting, and ultimately more worrisome.

We know Hegseth is a horrible leader. He bullies. He taunts and insults those who challenge. He fires people without cause or explanation. He privileges himself with one set of rules and enforces another set for everyone else. He lies constantly.

These are toxic traits that do not exist in genuine leaders. They set him at odds with the task of leading military formations.

But he goes after veterans, in particular active and retired officers whose achievements outshine his own, with a particularly febrile zeal. He practically foams at the mouth.

In recent hearing in a Federal Appeals Court, lawyers representing Hegseth literally argued that retired officers do not have the same free speech protections as everyone else. Because, they argue, drawing a military pension means you're still "connected" to active service.

They even said the quiet part out loud: if retirees want free speech, they should pay for it by turning over the pensions they earned with a lifetime of committed service.

This tells you three things about Hegseth:

(1) His free speech views are consistent with those of V.I. Lenin.

(2) He has zero respect for the service rendered by veterans.

(3) He does not care a whit about the future of our services.

Because if you want to ruin the all-volunteer force as rapidly as possible, make it explicit that staying in the service long enough to retire comes with a lifetime free speech ban.

A ban that applies even if you're elected to political office, which you'll somehow have to achieve without talking about anything fitting the vague definition of "political."

The courts have said this is absurd. They will do so again. Because no one has ever believed retirees continue to be exposed to military rules in the same way as active officers. That's never been the interpretation or application of the law.

But that doesn't make Hegseth less radioactive. He's not just going after Kelly. He's sending a signal to the rest of us. He's attempting to commit an unconstitutional act of prior restraint on a mass scale by chilling protected speech before it even occurs.

However, there is always a bright side. I've said for a long time that Hegseth is doing us a favor by pushing this issue in the courts. Doing so will force judges to crystallize the meaning of the law and its application to retirees.

This is something Congress should have done long ago. But it prefers to leave vague, anachronistic language on the books. This creates a theoretical mechanism to hold veterans at arbitrary risk, which is a timeless dark art in bureaucracies. It also avoids Congress taking any clear positions on anything important. Shirking, after all, is the most consistent habit of our Congress over the past four decades.

Second class citizenship for veterans isn't what I was fighting to protect all those years. I fought for everyone to have the right to question policy. To scrutinize public officials.

And when sensible, to tell public officials they are immoral, stupid, misguided, inept, and should go piss up a rope.

Or ... maybe I was fighting for the wrong things and I'm just too thick or denial-gripped to admit I've been a stooge most of my life.

Either way, I know something that cuts through.

I know it's important to fight even when your reasons to believe in something have long ago been exposed as punchlines. Doing the right thing for its own sake is a test of moral strength.

So when I see shit like this, I choose to take it personally.

We have installed a wannabe commissar as our SecDef, let him waste time and money on sham witch hunts which maneuver against our civil liberties. And we have representatives paid to do something about it who are catatonic and cowardly.

It's unacceptable.

What will make them do their jobs?

Maybe nothing. But maybe your voice as a veteran, joined by many others, will create healthy pressure.

If nothing else, act in your own interest. If you're a veteran, this guy is coming for you. He does not like you. He does not respect you. He wants your pension to stuff the taxidermy in his smoking parlor.

If you think you're safe because you're in the same cult at this point on the timeline, you have fundamentally misapprehended how to interact safely with dangerous reptiles.

And yet, I thank you for serving our nation. I thank your family for making it possible. And I welcome your voice, even if we disagree.