Pete Hegseth shined today in his four-hour plus hearing to become Secretary of Defense. Right off the top, he talked about his mission to restore the warrior ethos to the Pentagon, to rebuild the military, and to re-establish deterrence on the global scene.

“When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense,” Mr. Hegseth said. “He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on lethality, meritocracy, warfighting accountability, and readiness.” 

Mr. Hegseth added that Trump “believes, and I humbly agree, that it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm — a change agent.”

Rather than another bureaucrat, or even a high-ranking general, or somebody from the military-industrial boardroom, Mr. Hegseth would be a soldier’s Defense Secretary — emphasizing his “dust on the boots” experience on the battlefield. 

As he put it today: “I’ve led troops in combat. I’ve been on patrol for days. I’ve pulled the trigger downrange, heard bullets whiz by, flex-cuffed insurgents, called in close air support, led medevac, dodged IEDs, pulled out dead bodies and knelt before a battlefield cross. This is not academic for me. This is my life.”

Standards will be high in a Hegseth Pentagon, but woke and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be low.

Mr. Hegseth, a highly-decorated veteran who served in both the Afghanistan and Iraq combat zones, said again and again he wants warriors, readiness, and lethality above all else. 

In his testimony today he noted that “we won World War II with seven four-star generals. Today we have 44 four-star generals. There’s an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield. We don’t need more bureaucracy at the top. We need more warfighters empowered at the bottom.”

There will be fiscal audits to curb waste, but there’s also going to be targeted spending increases in places like naval ships and nuclear deterrence, and elsewhere.

And all the Democrats could do, for over four hours, was attack him personally — quoting anonymous smears that have never been proven.

The Democrats were incredibly partisan. Not a single one showed any support at all for Mr. Hegseth. And none of the Democrats acknowledged the Biden failures in Afghanistan, or Russia-Ukraine, or the appeasement of Iran, or the faint-hearted support for Israel, or standing up to Communist China.

They were clearly in denial that they no longer control government, in denial of President Trump’s landslide election victory, and in denial — once again — of what Americans wanted and voted for in November.

One of the themes in the election was the importance of change — in the economy, on illegal immigration, and on foreign policy, where suddenly under President Biden the world is now on fire.

Mr. Hegseth will be an unconventional change agent at the Pentagon. A disruptor, even. It’s what the country wants. 

And he is also a man of faith who, like the rest of us, has made mistakes in the past. But, like all of us sinners, he is working to change himself. 

As he told the senators: “I’m not a perfect person, as has been acknowledged, saved by the grace of God, by Jesus and Jenny. I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real, and God forged me in ways that I know I’m prepared for.”

I love that, just love that. And my saintly wife knows a thing or two about it herself.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.