It wasn’t quite Ollie North, but Pete Hegseth did well today. He adopted the rule of sitting for a deposition to his questioning from Democrats — not accepting the premise of simple “yes/no” questions, saying as little as possible or nothing if he could, and never, ever taking the bait.
The Democrats didn’t handle it well. They were often shrill and visibly frustrated, surely creating more sympathy for Hegseth among any Republicans not already with him.
Since, absent a major new revelation, Hegseth very likely has the votes for confirmation, all he needed to do was run an effective prevent defense, and he did that today.