For generations, the Senate has confirmed promotions for U.S. military officers as a matter of course. As regular readers know, Congress can be slow and frustrating, but this process has always been simple, quick and efficient — the nominees are usually packaged together for one uncontroversial vote — not only to benefit those in uniform, but also because senators don’t want to be seen as anti-military.
At least, not usually. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, however, has spent months blocking 184 military promotions — not because he has concerns about officers’ qualifications, but as part of a broader tantrum over a policy dispute.
As we’ve discussed, the far-right Alabaman — whose most meaningful association with the military was coaching the losing team in the 2014 Military Bowl — objects to a Pentagon policy that provides troops and their family members paid leave and stipends to travel for abortions or for fertility treatments.
The senator has told the Department of Defense that he’ll impose a blockade against military promotions unless the policy ends. For months, senators, DOD officials, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and even some GOP officials have tried to convince Tuberville to be more responsible. He’s ignored them.
Will he be similarly indifferent to a bipartisan group of former Pentagon chiefs? The Washington Post reported:
A bipartisan group of former defense secretaries — including two who served in Donald Trump’s administration — say that military readiness and U.S. national security are being harmed by one senator’s delay of the quick approval of nearly 200 military promotions because of his objection to the department’s abortion policy. That delay, which Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) began in March, “risks turning military officers into political pawns, holding them responsible for a policy decision made by their civilian leader,” the former defense secretaries wrote in a letter to Senate leaders Thursday.
The letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was signed by seven former secretaries of defense: Mark Esper, Jim Mattis, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates and William Cohen.
Or put another way, literally every living former Pentagon chief from the past quarter-century signed on to the letter to Senate leaders. Two of the seven served under Trump. Another two are themselves former Republican members of the Senate.
“The current hold that has been in place now for several weeks is preventing key leaders from assuming important, senior command and staff positions around the world,” the signatories explained. “Some are unable to take important command positions, such as leading the 5th Fleet in Bahrain and the 7th Fleet in the Pacific, which are critical to checking Iranian and Chinese aggression, respectively. Others include the next military representative to NATO, a post essential to coordinating allied efforts in support of Ukraine, as well as the future Director of Intelligence at U.S. Cyber Command.”
“Leaving these and many other senior positions in doubt at a time of enormous geopolitical uncertainty sends the wrong message to our adversaries and could weaken our deterrence,” the former secretaries added.
They went on to emphasize the impact on the affected service members and their families.
“Most cannot move and resettle their families,” the letter notes. “Their children cannot enroll at their next schools on time; and spouses cannot start new jobs at the next duty station. We can think of few things as irresponsible and uncaring as harming the families of those who serve our nation in uniform.” Ordinarily, a letter like this, given its authors and its unambiguous message, would generate a meaningful change. So far, Tuberville hasn’t commented — and he hasn’t dropped his blockade. As outlandish as the senator’s tactics are, I remain struck by the underlying mentality. Tuberville — a member of the Senate minority — has a problem with the Pentagon’s policy on reproductive rights. The Republican knows that most of his colleagues, like most of the country, disagrees with him. But since he can’t win a debate or pass a bill, the senator is abusing his position in the hopes of forcing the Defense Department to bend to his will, apparently indifferent to the consequences. The next time the Republican Party presents itself as a champion of the military and its interests, keep Tuberville’s indefensible antics in mind. This post revises our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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