Some Republicans have been making the case that it’d be dumb — any question of the merits aside — to dump Hegseth since he acts as a heat shield for other nominees, i.e., the same way Gaetz’s dropping out brought new scrutiny on Hegseth, the assured way to bring lots of new pressure on, say, Kash Patel would be for Hegseth to withdraw. I think this theory is correct. It’s also true that Hegseth has turned around the dynamics of his nomination in a way I didn’t expect given how last week started.