Generally speaking, when a sinner admits to having his life transformed, the sinner has a redemption story to tell.

That wasn’t the case for Pete Hegseth, the combat veteran and Fox News commentator, who is the president-elect’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, who endured both hostile questions and encomiums from the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing Jan. 14.

“I was saved … by Jesus and Jennie,” his current and third wife, Hegseth testified. But he confessed to no sins, not even infidelity.  

Every charge of sexual assault, mismanagement of his two nonprofits advocating for veterans, and public drunkenness were consigned to the category “anonymous smears,” even if the persons making the charges were not anonymous. It was all a “campaign orchestrated in the media against us.”

Hegseth wrote about heavy drinking in one of his books, but that must have all happened in his basement, because he denies any charges of drunkenness by his Fox colleagues, employees of his nonprofits, or anybody else.

It’s not clear whom Hegseth actually follows, Christ or the person who appears to be his real lord and master, President-elect Donald Trump, to whom he referred with awe and respect multiple times in a Senate hearing that lasted more than three hours.

All the problems in the military boiled down to being too “woke,” and devoted to Critical Race Theory, according to Senate Republicans. Hegseth agreed, and pledged to fire any commander who thought climate change was part of his remit, although ensuring that military bases will be able to survive extreme weather seems to be a pretty important part of a military leader’s job.

Hegseth also promised to reinstate, with back pay, any soldier dismissed for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID, which he described as an experimental treatment.

Hegseth’s demeanor was only part of the problem; the other was the inability of Democratic Senators to actually listen to what he said. There were some real moments of candor.

For example, in trying to walk back his statements that women didn’t belong in combat, Hegseth said he just wanted women to meet the same demanding physical standards as men. He opposed any situation where standards are changed “to meet racial or gender quotas,” he said.  Interesting that he’d assume that men of color might not be up to soldiering.

The biggest admission: “I don’t believe the federal government should pay [women soldiers] for travel for abortion.” Hegseth said. Presumably, that view would also apply to those women in the military who were the victims of rape.

Hegseth wants less restrictive rules of engagement for the military, so that “war-fighters are allowed to win wars.”

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) tried to get Hegseth to state whether he approved of using torture or waterboarding on enemy soldiers. All he got was the nominee’s declaration that “waterboarding is not legal.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that she agreed with him that retired generals should not join defense contractors for a period of ten years. Would he accept the same ten-year requirement for himself after service in the Trump cabinet, Warren asked.

“I’m not a general,” was Hegseth’s reply. That response got the only laugh during the hearing.

Overall, too many questions were asked about Hegseth’s demonstrated inability to run a nonprofit without overspending, and not enough were aimed at the fundamental danger: Would Hegseth respect the constitution and disobey an order from the President that he knew was illegal.

Sen. Elise Slotkin (D-Mich.) likely did the best job of asking that fundamental question.

“I reject the premise” the Trump will give illegal orders, Hegseth responded.

But of course, Trump already has given illegal orders, in his first term. Slotkin brought up then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s remorse about not defying Trump’s request in 2020 to activate the military to quash demonstrations In D.C. and elsewhere in 2020.  Fortunately, Esper did not follow Trump’s suggestion that protestors be shot in the legs.

Hegseth would not confirm that he would disobey unconstitutional orders from the president. Indeed, he tried to explain, more than once, that Trump’s decision to use military force on domestic protestors in Washington’s Lafayette Square, after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, may have been justified. He was in Lafayette Square that day, Hegseth said, “I understood the level of threat” posed by the demonstrators.

Slotkin also prodded him into admitting that he “certainly has been involved in conversations” about the military’s role in restoring order at the border. He would not say whether soldiers could be dispatched to staff detention centers.

Hegseth seemed pretty confident about his chances for confirmation. He made several references to already building his team.

And he said something else that seemed ominous. Trump, he said, “will issue a new set of lawful orders” to the military. “Accountability is coming.”