VICTOR JOECKS: The biggest difference between Newsom and Hegseth

California Gov. Gavin Newsom may not be good at governing, but he sure knows how to deflect blame. Even as Los Angeles continues to burn, his campaign has created a “California Fire Facts” website to promote his spin. He has also called for an independent investigation into why some L.A. fire hydrants ran out of water and the Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty. Expect that investigation to conclude that someone other than Newsom is to blame.

Even Newsom’s smooth talk may not be enough to save his presidential ambitions. Local officials, such as L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, are facing a backlash, too. As it turns out, seeing a city on fire can change people’s perspective on political leaders.

“We’ll accept some blame,” Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the L.A. Times, said in a recent interview on Mark Halperin’s Morning Meeting show. “At the L.A. Times, we endorsed Karen Bass. I think right now that’s a mistake. And we admit that.”

Last week, Soon-Shiong wrote, “Maybe the lesson we learned out of this catastrophe in California is to now vote not based on left or right or D versus R but perhaps based on” competency. He continued, “We have to elect based on competence … yes, competence matters.”

That’s true but incomplete. California’s problem isn’t that Newsom is a dummy. It’s that the state has spent decades electing people with leftist worldviews.

Leftists believe seemingly endless regulations and environmental reviews should delay new reservoirs. Many fight against controlled burns. They believe California should tear down dams to help fish. They don’t want law enforcement to turn an illegal alien over to ICE who was caught near an L.A. fire with a blowtorch. They believe firefighters should be selected based on their ability to check off intersectionality boxes, not their ability to fight fires.

Contrast that approach with secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth. On Tuesday, he shared his vision for the military during his confirmation hearing with the Senate’s Committee on Armed Services.

“Our standards will be high, and they will be equal, not equitable — that’s a very different word,” Hegseth said in his opening statement. We need to make sure “every general or flag officer is selected for leadership or promotion purely based on performance, readiness and merit. Leaders, at all levels, will be held accountable. And warfighting and lethality and the readiness of the troops and their families will be our only focus.”

This is Hegseth’s biggest leadership advantage over the military’s Chicken Little elites. The supposed “experts” may have more experience than Hegseth, but they’ve led the military in the wrong direction. Making it worse, the top brass isn’t even held accountable when things go wrong. Little wonder that the military faced a recruiting crisis during President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Competency is a measure of how well you can get things done. California’s problem is that Newsom and many others have been competent — at implementing leftist absurdities. That’s what’s led to incompetent results. Even with — or perhaps because of — his untraditional background Hegseth will be aiming at the right target.

That’s the greatest advantage Hegseth and conservatives more broadly have over Newsom and other leftist politicians.

Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.