Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions and nominations has been going on since February, and more than 300 general and flag officer nominations have piled up in the meantime. The issue has become such a crisis for the military that it’s making Tuberville toxic in his own party. Fellow senators are criticizing him. Republican presidential contenders are criticizing him. It’s so bad that even some House Republicans are telling him to knock it off.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that “holding these non-policymaking career military [officials] who can’t be involved in politics at all is a mistake, and we continue to work on that and I hope at some point we can get it clear.” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul of Texas said that Tuberville’s holds are “paralyzing the Department of Defense.” He added that it “is a national security problem and a national security issue. And I really wish he would reconsider this.”
Tuberville is refusing to allow all promotions and nominations of military officers to get to the floor in an expedited vote because he disagrees with the Pentagon policy that allows service members paid leave to, if necessary, travel to obtain out-of-state abortion services.
Senate Republicans are all but begging him to relent and narrow his holds to just the higher ranks. Sen. Susan Collins, for one, says she is “very concerned” and is hoping that Tuberville “will reconsider and narrow his focus to only those individuals who have policy responsibilities.”
Republicans have been pushing this solution, which allows them to try to blame Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for the burgeoning crisis. They say that all he needs to do is to bring up the top-ranking officers’ nominations individually instead of under the unanimous consent rule with the rest of the colleagues.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, has the answer to that. The Senate can’t just “pick some of the top people like the service chiefs and vote on them” while Tuberville “punish[es] those down the ranks,” he told CNN. He added that the military doesn’t operate that way. “Officers say, officers eat last. You don’t punish the people down the ranks to advantage people up the ranks.”
Tuberville antics wearing thin with Republicans (dailykos.com)