For weeks now, Democrats and their corporate media lapdogs have been trying to derail the nomination of Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump's inspired pick for secretary of defense. Their tactics have been just as loathsome as they have been eerily reminiscent: The whole operation looks like a rerunning of the discredited Brett Kavanaugh playbook, which leftists deployed back in 2018 to try and tar and feather Trump's second Supreme Court pick as some sort of criminal gang rapist. The Left's tossing out of five millennia of civilizational norms pertaining to due process and innocence until proven guilty was nothing if not eye-opening; for many of us, it was a true "red pill" moment. Thankfully, the Kavanaugh operation failed—albeit barely, and not with much room to spare.

Six years later, it is imperative that the Hegseth operation similarly fails. As I explained in a Daily Mail piece this past weekend, there is now much more at stake than Hegseth's future helming the bloated and byzantine Pentagon apparatus.

First, it is crucial that the Kavanaugh smear campaign tactics—which have been replicated almost entirely, right up to an implausible rape allegation and a recent entirely unsourced NBC News piece about his alleged drinking problems—fail once again. These bully tactics can never, ever succeed. For Democrats and their corporate media allies to succeed against Hegseth where they failed against Kavanaugh is to essentially permit an ever-looming threat of an oversize heckler's veto that is capable of nuking any Republican president's high-profile nomination. It is to reward the lowest, basest type of gutter politics that exists. American politics simply cannot exist in such a state—it is entirely unsustainable.

Second, it is equally crucial that President Trump not let his myriad enemies derail his agenda—and thereby set the tone—before his second term has even started. During Trump's first term, he was constantly undermined and subverted by an array of hostile forces—very much including those within his own party and even within his own administration. If Trump wants to prove to the critics and skeptics that he has learned the right lessons from his shortcomings last time, he must reenter the Oval Office on Jan. 20 with swagger and success—boasting both the optics of a winner as well as the transition period track record of someone who has already won. That means getting his major picks, such as his secretary of defense, on track for quick Senate confirmation. This is doubly true following the premature withdrawal of Matt Gaetz from consideration as U.S. attorney general.

Trump has ambitious plans for his second term. He has no time to waste—he has to hit the ground running. Right now, that means getting Cabinet picks like Pete Hegseth across the finish line.

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Our highlighted Newsweek op-eds this week include selections from Max Eden and yours truly, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Joey Jones, Asaf Romirowsky, and Paul du Quenoy.

Have a great rest of your week, everyone. We will be back in your inbox next Wednesday!