Maureen Dowd Unloads on 'Muttonhead' Hegseth

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd goes after newly rechristened war secretary Pete Hegseth in unwithering fashion in her new column. Among the insults hurled: "muttonhead," "utterly unqualified and looking like the third lead of a cheesy spring-break movie," "paranoid," "immature and unconfident," and thin-skinned. The piece is pegged to Hegseth's new move to boot journalists from the Pentagon who don't agree to get permission before writing stories, which Dowd predicts will backfire in spectacular fashion.

• "He is going to spur some superlative Pentagon coverage. Because nothing gets a bunch of reporters going like being forced out of the building where they work and being told they aren't allowed to do their jobs."

These kind of "undemocratic, restrictive protocols at the Pentagon makes it seem as though we're run by tinpot dictators," writes Dowd, who asserts that Hegseth doesn't understand that a free press is essential for a democracy. She notes that Thomas Jefferson once said he'd rather have "newspapers without a government" than vice versa. "Hopefully, the defense secretary who will take over when Hegseth is undone by the press for his ineptitude and un-American diktats will understand that." Read the full column.