Sen. Tommy Tuberville has come up with a variety of defenses for his radical blockade on military nominees, but there’s one talking point the Alabama Republican keeps coming back to: His tactics don’t really matter.
Leaders throughout the armed forces keep trying to get the senator to understand that his blockade is doing real damage to his own country’s military, but Tuberville has spent months insisting that he simply doesn’t believe them. To hear the coach-turned-politician tell it, the jobs are being filled; the work is being done; and so his policy is entirely inconsequential.
But for those who actually know what they’re talking about, the problem isn’t just that the Alabaman is undermining the country now, it’s a problem made worse by the fact that the effects of his blockade will be felt for a long while. Politico reported:
President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, said it could take the service years to recover from the impacts of Sen. Tommy Tuberville‘s blockade of hundreds of senior military promotions. Franchetti told the Senate Armed Services Committee during her confirmation hearing Thursday that the impasse has created “a lot of uncertainty” for Navy families.
“Just at the three-star level, it would take about three to four months just to move all the people around,” Franchetti said. “But it will take years to recover … from the promotion delays that we would see.”
As for the current implications, The New York Times summarized matters this week in a straightforward way: [Many senior positions will be] filled on an “acting” basis. But acting officials are transition figures — like substitute teachers in grade school. They cannot hire people to staff their new positions. They cannot move into the quarters that come with the job. They cannot impose any long-term vision on the military. The holds are cutting deep….
At least some Republicans on Capitol Hill are noticing. Rep. Dan Crenshaw told Politico this week, in reference to Tuberville, “I’m hearing more and more that his actions are having worsening consequences.” The Texan, a former Navy SEAL officer, added in a text message to allies that he’s “at a point where I’m going to tear apart (if asked) coach/Senator/non-veteran Tuberville for personally attacking service members who have spent almost 30 years serving our country.”
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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