All senator has to show for his tantrum is wasted time and complicated lives
After achieving absolutely nothing, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-ala., finally ended his pointless blockade of U.S. military promotions. “We fought hard,” Tuberville said in praise of himself. “We did the right thing for the unborn and the military, fighting back against executive overreach.”
Nonsense. In overreach of his own, Tuberville made members of the military pawns in his political grandstanding, gumming the works of national security and angering fellow lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the process.
Tuberville staged his one-man siege, which lasted nearly a year, in protest of a policy that offers paid leave and reimburses expenses of military personnel who must travel to states other than where they are stationed to have abortions and other reproductive care.
The policy wouldn’t be necessary if the U.S. Supreme Court hadn’t reversed Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion laws up to individual states. So it seems only fair that the reimbursements exist. A woman in the military has limited control over where she is deployed. You go where you’re told. And if she winds up in a state with more restrictive abortion laws, it’s because that’s where she was sent. It seems only reasonable to pay the costs of her having to travel to another state to seek care.
But Tuberville said he wanted the policy ended and slammed the brakes on hundreds of senior-level promotions.
Beyond the attention it attracted, Tuberville’s stunt did nothing but hamstring the U.S. military and jeopardize national security at one of the most dangerous times in recent history, with looming threats from Russia and China and a war in Israel.
Promotions were frozen from the top ranks down, leaving many senior military leaders overworked and understaffed. As if Tuberville cared.
When the commandant of the Marines had to be hospitalized after an apparent heart attack, Tuberville even had the gall to challenge military officials to man up as he had done — as a college football coach.
“This guy is going to work 18-20 hours a day, no matter what,” Tuberville said of the Marine who suffered the heart attack. “That’s what we do. I did that for years.”
The officer in question, Gen. Eric Smith, who had filled the roles of both the No. 1 and No. 2 top commanders of the Marines until he was confirmed as commandant in September, collapsed during a jog.
“They’re looking for someone to blame it on, other than themselves,” Tuberville said of Defense Department officials who had expressed frustration after Smith’s hospitalization.
As for Tuberville’s reversal, let’s be clear: He didn’t see any light.
Pressure was building from Democrats and Republicans for him to end the stunt. Among his critics were GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley and Sens. Joni Ernst, R-iowa, and Dan Sullivan, R-alaska.
“As a member of the Armed Services committee, as a U.S. Marine Corps colonel, I know, we all know here in the Senate, America needs to have our best players, our most combat-capable leaders on the field,” Sullivan said in November. “And right now, that’s not happening. It needs to change.”
Another factor that may have forced Tuberville’s hand was, to use football parlance, the growing threat of an end run around him. Some Democrats were exploring a temporary bypass of Senate rules that would have allowed most promotions to be approved in one sweeping vote.
Tuberville’s obstruction had forced each nomination or promotion to be approved in a roll call vote.
Had Tuberville’s tantrum played on, it also would have gift-wrapped a campaign issue for Democrats. As the 2024 election approaches, it would have kept the abortion issue front and center, where many Republicans don’t want it to be. And it would have risked the GOP being portrayed as anti-military.
Sadly, left intact is the arcane Senate rule that allowed Tuberville to stall promotions in the first place. So many Senate traditions make no practical sense and serve no useful purpose.
As for Tuberville, 10 months later, all he has to show for his petulant protest is wasted time and complicated lives.
Way to go, Coach.