There are no new stories of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth becoming so drunk that he has to be carried out of social events, as when he led the nonprofit activist group Concerned Veterans of America.

And nobody is reporting that he cried out, “Kill all Muslims! Kill all Muslims!” as he allegedly did during a bender during that same period following his 2005 return from the war in Iraq, which his lawyer denied.

But, by all appearances at his Iran war briefings, Hegseth remains a prime example of the old Irish adage that what comes out when you’re drunk is in you when you’re sober. He speaks lustily of killing with “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” He remains arrogant and heedless and quick to anger.

“A dry drunk,” a firefighter who had been with Alcoholics Anonymous for 42 years remarked to the Daily Beast.

The firefighter was using the program’s term for somebody who has stopped drinking but has not resolved the psychological problems that had compelled him to embrace the bottle.

“Drinking is a symptom,” the firefighter said. “You sober up a horse thief, you have a sober horse thief. You take the nuts out of a fruitcake, you still have a fruitcake.”

Hegseth is not known to be a member of AA. When pressed on allegations last year of his drinking, Hegseth labeled them as “anonymous smears” during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee

The Daily Beast asked the Department of Defense for Hegseth’s response to the suggestion that he is a dry drunk.

“It’s disgraceful that the Daily Beast is asking such disgusting and defamatory questions that major combat operations that have kept Secretary Hegseth 100% focused on the care and continued success of our warfighters,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell replied.

Hegseth nonetheless strikes the firefighter as a common type he has often encountered in the drinking world.

“An egomaniac with an inferiority complex,” the firefighter said.

The firefighter has taken note of Hegseth’s crusader cross tattoo and form-fitting suits and red, white and blue pocket square.

“That’s armor,” the firefighter said. “That’s just fronting, as they used to call it in the neighborhood.”

“He’s damaged goods…He’s like a man-child.”

Hegseths’ warfighter’s visage prompted the firefighter to quote a line from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, where the character of Katherine gives her final monologue:

“Unknit that threatening, unkind brow and dart not scornful glances from those eyes.”

He offered a modern paraphrase of Katherine’s words.

And what a d--k Hegseth can be, even without a drink.

Hegseth began his most recent war briefing on Thursday by recounting how he, President Donald Trump and Air Force General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, bore witness to a dignified transfer ritual, the return of the remains of six aircrew members killed when their KC-135 Air Force refueling aircraft crashed in the war zone.

“Yesterday at Dover Air Force Base, President Trump, the chairman and I stood in solemn silence as heroes came home,” Hegeseth said. “Flag-draped caskets, we honored them. We grieved with their families and we listened. What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family.”

He continued, “They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done.’ My response, along with that of the president, was simple; ‘Of course we will finish this. We will honor their sacrifice. Their sacrifice only steels our commitment.”

One family member afterwards said that he remembered the exchange very differently. Charles Simons, father of 28-year-old Air Force Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, told NBC News, “I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about.”

Simmons recalled telling Hegseth, “I understand there’s a lot of peril that goes into making decisions like this, and I just certainly hope the decisions being made are necessary.”

NBC asked the father whether he had told Hegseth and Trump to honor the fallen service members’ sacrifice by not wavering and not stopping “until the job is done.”

“No, I didn’t say anything along those lines,” Simmons told the network.

The father did acknowledge that both Hegseth and Trump were warm towards him and he expressed gratitude for their support. But that does not excuse Hegseth seeking to sell the Iran war and make himself a star in a great drama by falsely reporting what a grieving father said “through tears and hugs” at such a moment.

Hegseth clearly needs to do more than simply abstain from alcohol if he wants to become an emotionally sober adult.

At the end of the briefing, Hegseth spoke as a father himself.

“My 13-year-old son popped into my office last night while I was editing these remarks,” he said. “He asked about the war and the families I met at Dover. And I looked at him and I said, ‘They died for you, son, so that your generation doesn’t have to deal with a nuclear Iran.’”

Let’s hope Hegseth at least reported his words to his son accurately.

“It’s the truth,” Hegseth then told all who were listening. “And they did.”

He then addressed the families.

“So to the families who said, finish this, we will,” he said.

Maybe Hegseth was not including Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons’s father.

Hegseth continued, “And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength.”

He proceeded as would be expected of any secretary of defense, even one who insists on being called the “secretary of war.”

“May almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight.”

He then became heedless, ignoring the 30 per cent of Americans–and a similar percentage of our servicemembers–who do not identify as Christian.

“And again to the American people, please pray for them every day on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Christ, being the Prince of Peace. Hegseth, being a guy who called for killing with no quarter or mercy. He ended as if he had been speaking to all those in uniform.

“To the troops, keep going and Godspeed.”

© The Daily Beast