The Senate’s reputation as an institution of comity and civil discourse is largely a self-serving fiction, but one I understand the members of the body must maintain to keep from devolving into a second House.
Whether it’s that self-image of patient deliberation, or a fear of “appearing partisan,” that has kept any member, of either party, from introducing a motion to censure Senator Tuberville, the time for such niceties is over.
The senator’s intransigence, combined with his profound ignorance of the chain of command and the law, is beginning to take an alarming toll on the effectiveness and readiness of our armed forces.
The senator’s actions represent a clear threat to the security of the United States, an opinion shared by military leaders and politicians of both parties. As the senator has vowed he won’t stop his damaging campaign, the duty falls to his colleagues in “the greatest deliberative body.”
It’s clear that, in the current environment, with Republicans desperate to obfuscate the blatant corruption and criminality veined through their party, that no vote to expel Tuberville has a chance of reaching unanimity.
A motion to condemn this behavior via censure, however, requires only a majority vote in the chamber.
A censure by his peers would likely not stop the senator from the Florida panhandle Alabama from his performative ignorance, but it would at least assure the American people that some of their senators think an operational military is a good idea.
If only the Democrats had a majority in the Senate…