Earlier this month, several Senate Republicans decided they’d seen enough of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s unprecedented blockade on confirming U.S. military leaders. In fact, these GOP members publicly accused the Alabama Republican of, among other things, being dishonest, damaging the military during international crises, assisting U.S. adversaries abroad, and relying on tactics that are “ridiculous” and “dumb.”
If the goal was to encourage the far-right senator to be more responsible, those efforts have apparently had no effect. HuffPost reported overnight:
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is coming under fire after he insulted the U.S. military on Monday evening. “We’ve got the weakest military that we’ve had in your or my lifetime,” he told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling as he complained about diversity initiatives. “Infiltrating our military is all this wokeness.”
There was, of course, a degree of irony to the circumstances: The politician responsible for weakening the military whined on national television about the military being weak.
Soon after, former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Tuberville isn’t just wrong; he’s “an idiot.”
Putting questions about the Alabaman’s intellect aside, I’m struck by the broader shift in Tuberville’s tactics. Following up on our earlier coverage, the senator’s original position was indefensible, but it was at least consistent. In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s demise, the Pentagon created a travel-reimbursement policy for servicemembers who needed to travel for reproductive health care.
The Alabama Republican insisted that the policy was “illegal” (it’s not), and further argued that the Defense Department was paying for abortions (which was also untrue). The result was a radical tactic: For the first time in American history, a senator imposed a blanket hold that made it effectively impossible for the Senate to confirm U.S. military promotions in large numbers.
The right-wing coach-turned-politician made his position clear: The military nominees — who have broad, bipartisan support — could advance just as soon as the Pentagon eliminates these benefits for servicemembers and aligns military policies with his regressive beliefs. DOD leaders have balked, and the result has been a nearly year-long blockade without precedent.
But Tuberville’s position has subtly evolved over time. The Alabaman used to attack a specific benefit the military made available to active-duty troops. In the late summer, however, the Republican started attacking high-ranking military officers themselves.
Now, Tuberville is going a step further, condemning his own country’s military for having descended into “weakness.”
It’s tempting to explore in detail all of the many substantive reasons the senator is wrong, but there really isn’t much of a point: Tuberville doesn’t take his own positions seriously, so there’s little reason for anyone else to respond to them as if he were a mature policymaker. The larger question, meanwhile, is what, if anything, senators can do to circumvent the Republican’s efforts. Two weeks ago, the Senate Rules Committee advanced a measure — that’s being referred to as a “patch” — which would temporarily empower members to confirm pending military nominees, crushing Tuberville’s blockade. In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’d bring up the resolution “in the coming weeks,” clearing the way for confirmations before the new year. The trouble, of course, is that the measure would still need 60 votes, which means nine GOP senators would have to side with Democrats in support of the military. While Republican criticisms of Tuberville are becoming more common — even Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas recently conceded that the Alabaman’s tactics are hurting the armed forces — it’s not yet clear whether those votes will materialize over the next month. Watch this space. This post updates 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."
Latest Post
Recommended
