Alabama’s blowhard Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville seems to have seen the writing on the wall regarding his hold on military promotions: There is a growing sentiment among his Republican colleagues that it must end. A temporary rule change that would bypass Tuberville’s one-man blockade is ready to come to the Senate floor, and it would appear Tuberville has been hearing from fellow Republicans that they’re ready to vote with Democrats against him.
That’s the likeliest reason for Tuberville to be at least partly relenting, anyway. CNN reports that as early as next week, he’ll back away from his holds on all but the top officer promotions, and that he “will instead be focusing his blockade on a smaller number of nominees he characterized as ‘woke.’” Sure, Tommy.
Tuberville told CNN that he still thinks the “generals and admirals” should be vetted, as if he has any qualification to do that, but that “we need to get these people promoted, and it’s been a long time for some of them.” Yes, it has been a long time. And that’s solely due to Tuberville’s tantrum. Asshole.
Until now, Tuberville has remained obstinate that there’s only one way out of the mess he created: The Pentagon must end its policy of reimbursing service members for travel to obtain abortion care out-of-state when necessary. That’s why he put a blanket hold on all military promotions and now, over 400 are blocked. The Senate normally handles these confirmations in blocs as they come up, under unanimous consent, so that it doesn’t have to take hours of floor time to process them. Both Republican and Democratic senators have previously used holds on nominees to get answers from the White House on policy questions, but there’s seemingly never been a block before that created an actual national security threat.
In Tuesday’s lunch meeting for the Republican conference, Tuberville reportedly told his colleagues that he was trying to find a way to fix it. It’s possible that his friends weren’t satisfied with his vague promises that he was "trying to get some kind of resolution before we get home for Christmas." He doesn’t say he’s been facing more pressure from his colleagues, but it sure sounds like it.
“Now, we’re working towards getting, which I’ve been very much for, getting the promotions over with,” Tuberville told CNN. He has not been “very much for” getting those promotions done. Just one month ago, Tuberville denied that his hold was having much of an impact at all. “I have to respectfully disagree with my colleagues about the effect of my hold on readiness. My hold is not affecting readiness,” Tuberville said when confronted by his Republican colleagues in a rare public rebuke on the Senate floor.
Now? “We need to get them promoted,” Tuberville says, as if there is a “we” involved here and he’s not single-handedly responsible for this. “I don’t know what they’re going to do with the resolution,” he told CNN, “but we’re going through all of the people that are up for promotion. We’ll promote people in the very near future.”
I repeat: Asshole.
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