Pentagon officials have been frustrated for months over an Alabama senator’s blockade of more than 300 senior military nominations. But after the Marine Corps chief was hospitalized over the weekend, that frustration is turning into rage.
Gen. Eric Smith had been filling both the No. 1 and No. 2 Marine Corps posts from July until he was finally confirmed as commandant in September. He, along with more than 300 other senior officers, was swept up in the promotions blockade put in place by GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy.
In an interview Wednesday, Tuberville brushed off the comments from the DOD officials.
“They’re looking for someone to blame it on, other than themselves,” he said. “We could have all these people confirmed if they’d have just gone by the Constitution.
“I don’t listen to these people,” he added. “They’re just looking for any possible way to get themselves out of a jam.”
The problem is they needed to fast track 100s because of the lack of effort from the last admin. What tuberville is doing is unprecedented. Now instead of taking the time to deal with bigger issues he’s made the one sure thing, politicians unified support of the military, into a weapon of the minority. Schumer was hoping the Senate leaders could contain him but there is no one can control the GOP anymore. Tubberville’s true purpose was to break the government and if Schumer breaks and does them individually then the tirade will have worked and say goodbye to anything getting done in reasonable times. Now you need a supermajority to even approve environmental issues that save lives! Schumer’s only fault was to not change the Senate rules immediately after tub’s protest but he is old guard and they worry more about new precedents then using the power they have.
Schumer can’t make those changes with Manchin and Sinema in the picture. They are just as actively holding things back as Tuberville.
Really cool that our blue party of capital always has some rotating villains they can point to. Also I’m sure if you lived in W Virginia or Arizona would be voting for both of those two and scolding those that didn’t.
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You mean drop all the rest of their senatorial duties because one self righteous shitbag from Alabama thinks the military is “woke”?
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Wasting a bunch of time individually debating military promotions isn’t “taking out the trash”.
Would there be a lot of debating? I’m genuinely curious and trying to figure this whole thing out.
Do they do it this way or are they all voted on and approved by committee led by tube?
Ideally there would be “some” debate. Though realistically it has largely been hashed out in committee. The problem is, even if the whole Senate dropped everything else they were doing to address this. Two things. It rewards Republicans for bad behavior. Also setting a horrible new precedent that things must now always be passed by cloture. Tying up the whole Senate. It’s win win for Republicans. And keep in mind this is on REPUBLICANS, not just Tuberville. If this were an issue for Republicans. They’ve had years to replace him on committee. Make no mistake, this is what Republicans want. And Democrats cleaning up the Republican mess only hurts Democrats in the long run.
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