I wonder if the democrats will grill him on subjects such as homosexuals openly serving. Transsexuals in the military. Women in combat infantry roles.

Well, duh.

Of course they will. I hope he is prepared with appropriately vague answers for the obvious questions. He's a man of action so he may not be very good at politic-speak. He needs a few good politicians to help him prepare.

I believe he will speak his truth, and do fine.

He's certainly not going to be knocked off balance by DC pantywaists.

Well, they aren't going to ask any questions about doctrine, war fighting, or defeating the enemy.

LOL, you got that right......smile.

If they annoy him, he might do the "Few Good Men" speech, then offer to rip off their heads and pee down their necks, I think is how it was phrased.

I'm really struggling with the two words, "good politicians". They don't seem to belong together.

There are going to be so many asking him questions that don't even deserve to be in the same room with him.

They will try to make him look bad

That Sir is a million dollar statement... I anticipate he will be prepared and return overwhelming fire.

We already know the democrats are not honorable people. Look who they approved for obamas cabinet and the Supreme Court. The problem is they had republican help. No this same bunch of republicans are going to fight trump nominees. Hasbeen

Here is a story on General Mattis:

A couple of months ago, when I told General Krulak, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, now the chair of the Naval Academy Board of Visitors, that we were having General Mattis speak this evening, he said, “Let me tell you a Jim Mattis story.”

General Krulak said, when he was Commandant of the Marine Corps, every year, starting about a week before Christmas, he and his wife would bake hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Christmas cookies. They would package them in small bundles.
Then on Christmas day, he would load his vehicle. At about 4 a.m., General Krulak would drive himself to every Marine guard post in the Washington-Annapolis-Baltimore area and deliver a small package of Christmas cookies to whatever Marines were pulling guard duty that day. He said that one year, he had gone down to Quantico as one of his stops to deliver Christmas cookies to the Marines on guard duty. He went to the command center and gave a package to the lance corporal who was on duty.

He asked, “Who’s the officer of the day?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it’s Brigadier General Mattis.” And General Krulak said, “No, no, no. I know who General Mattis is. I mean, who’s the officer of the day today, Christmas day?” The lance corporal, feeling a little anxious, said, “Sir, it is Brigadier General Mattis.”
General Krulak said that, about that time, he spotted in the back room a cot, or a daybed. He said, “No, Lance Corporal. Who slept in that bed last night?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it was Brigadier General Mattis.”

About that time, General Krulak said that General Mattis came in, in a duty uniform with a sword, and General Krulak said, “Jim, what are you doing here on Christmas day? Why do you have duty?” General Mattis told him that the young officer who was scheduled to have duty on Christmas day had a family, and General Mattis decided it was better for the young officer to spend Christmas Day with his family, and so he chose to have duty on Christmas Day.
General Krulak said, “That’s the kind of officer that Jim Mattis is.”

~The story above was told by Dr. Albert C. Pierce, the Director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at The United States Naval Academy. He was introducing General James Mattis who gave a lecture on Ethical Challenges in Contemporary Conflict in the spring of 2006. This was taken from the transcript of that lecture.

I know some Marines who served with him. Both say he is a man of impeccable character and leadership.

One told me he would get up every morning at 0400 and spend 2 hours reading military history.

No he won't speak the truth, unless he doesn't want to be confirmed. Unless of course he has no problem with women in combat,and homos and trannys serving.

I'm not on the "Mad Dog" wagon. If he had/has issues with them serving then he should have resigned when the ban was lifted by clinton in the 90s for females and then when obama let the homos and trannys serve openly.

To be fair, I did not resign either when the combat exclusion law was rescinded because I wanted to promote so I could pack my pension. Then again I had ZERO recourse to voice my opinion other than letters to my Congressmen, and editors which I did. Lastly, the fact he was against water boarding when he knew full well it WORKED on the THREE that were subjected to it AND the fact A LOT of his AVIATORS were subjected to it in SERE Training, tells me he's got a lot of political blood in him.

I heard on Fox this morning that the democrat that ran against Pelosi say that he respects Mattis and thinks he should get the waiver and be confirmed.. Once in a while some of them get it right...

Maddog can handle the dipschits with ease.

The problem is, he is constrained by integrity and they aren't. He won't abandon his honor.




P

If the Senate fails to reach a unanimous consent. The vote for cloture motion requires 51 votes which the Senate Republicans have. Maybe 52 with Louisiana finishing up. Should be a walk in the park

I think Mattis is the right guy. He'll face some hard questioning, but will survive.

I spent 10 years in the USMC from 1990 to 2000 but never met the man. What I do know is that no one has made it to the general officer ranks since WWII without being at least partly a politician. It's just a requirement of the job.

I suspect he'll handle the confirmation hearings just fine.

I hope they don't jerk him around

I hope he doesn't stab them in the throat for asking stupid questions. Well maybe just one of them.

I don't know how a limp-shouldered, pencil neck politician has the balls to "grill" a real man like General Mattis?

Best answer yet.

If the Repubs stick together & have 51 votes, it really doesn't matter what they ask or imply or don't like........he's in.

MM

If I were Trump I wouldn't even waste time worrying about it. If they don't want to confirm him as Sec.Def., just recall him to active duty and assign him as special consultant to the Sec.Def.. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

This

Except a lot of Senators consider their vote to be a source of income, or something to be traded for another vote that will good for them.
They will hold out for the best deal.

That would be fun to watch.
a stupid politician poking a lion and thinking nothing will happen.

Again Fun to watch.

There's going to be a battle of wits in the confirmation hearings and a lot of the leftie trash will be unarmed. The rest will be seriously undergunned.

^^^WORD^^^.

He will improvise & overcome.