2y ago

Schumer stamps out final Tuberville military holds, ending months-long standoff

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday evening sought and received unanimous consent to confirm the promotions of 11 four-star generals that had been held up for months by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) to protest the Pentagon’s abortion policies.

Schumer broke Tuberville’s blockade of more than 300 lower-ranking military promotions earlier this month, but the Alabama senator insisted at the time on holding up 11 of the highest-ranking officers so as not to capitulate completely to Democrats.

Tuberville demanded at the time that the promotions of the 11 four-star generals go through regular order on the Senate floor. He wanted senators to vote on procedural motions to end debate and then vote again to confirm the military promotions individually.

37 comments

Tuberville, what did your hold accomplish again?
- nothing. He was trying to hold those positions for Trump. Kinda like McConnell did with SCOTUS nominations.
  
  That's not totally true. It probably worsened our military readiness and caused all kinds of knock-on effects fucking with the already terrible bureaucracy of the armed forces.
  It also sent a CLEAR message to all enlisted members with uteruses that they need to be aware that their body autonomy may be revoked at any second.
  
  If you listen you can tell Republicans know they're losing the next election
- A gift to Putin and Trump
- I'll tell you one thing it accomplished- every single one of those officers whose promotions were held up will remember that if Trump becomes president and orders them to occupy American cities.
- You see, he was trying to ice the kicker by calling multiple, last minute, timeouts. But when you’re kicking from behind the goal posts you literally can’t miss. Unfortunately for Tommy Trumpetville he was a shit coach and is an even shittier politician, and as shortsighted as they come. He got into a pissing contest with the wind and lost.
- The hold might insure more Russian money would flow into Republican's pockets.
“Sooner or later you got to communicate: ‘Coach, what do you want here? Let’s get this done.’ They have no communication skills whatsoever. It’s their way or the highway,” he said.
First, referring to yourself in the third person as "Coach" while being a US Senator discussing the business of the US Senate is one of the stupidest things I've heard in awhile.
Second, they don't need to ask you what you want "coach", they know you want to enforce your backwards unpopular social agenda blocking abortion in any way or form, and you're willing to push your person views at the cost of military readiness and recruiting. You are making our country less safe. Stop it "coach".
- I took Coach to be referring to Schumer, as majority leader. Doesn't make Tupperville's bullshit sound any more believable.
  
  Thomas Hawley Tuberville (born September 18, 1954) is an American politician and retired college football coach who is the senior United States senator from Alabama
  source
  I really think he was referring to himself. As in, Tuberville wanted someone to come to him and ask him what his demands were to figuratively release the hostages of the military promotions.
  
  Tuberville’s preferred pronouns are Coach, Coach, and Coach
Tuberville has achieved setting precedent that higher officer promotions don't need unanimous Senate consent. Republicans will plan to use this to promote MAGA friendly officers in an effort to influence and control the military.
- It's not like they can just pick who gets to be a general; it takes years to get into positions of authority, and Congress approving promotions is mostly a formality (that's why they did it in batches before ol' Tommy decided to hold people's careers hostage.).
  If there are MAGA supporters in the military, they've been there the whole time.
  
  No doubt, but the Rs have already politicized the highest officers by labeling those making policy with which they disagree woke. They pay close attention and vet the generals, and I believe they'll use this practice to influence the promotions with their own hierarchy in mind--and plans once it's in place.
  I suspect this was Tuberville's main goal with all this nonsense. The disruption to the defense department and nonstop cycle of distraction this year have been icing on the cake for him and MAGA at large.
- tuberville doesn't achieve shit. He's a potato.
  The handlers around him get the credit for any of their perceived "victory" that are simultaneously loses for humanity in general. He's 1000% propped up and barely knows where he is. tommy tuberville probably uses a gun to try to tie his Velcro shoes in the morning.
  
  Yeah, I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to give Tuberville the credit for being either smart or crafty and that includes being smart or crafty enough to be able to do someone else's bidding. He's just a fucking idiot. I don't know about football, but I'm told he was a mediocre coach basically his whole adult life before becoming a senator. All he's ever known is football and whatever he's soaked up from watching Fox News when football is over. I don't believe this was part of some master plan. This was an idiot thinking if he did something stupid, he would achieve his goal of being dumb.
Tubular
- Totally
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday evening sought and received unanimous consent to confirm the promotions of 11 four-star generals that had been held up for months by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) to protest the Pentagon’s abortion policies.
Schumer broke Tuberville’s blockade of more than 300 lower-ranking military promotions earlier this month, but the Alabama senator insisted at the time on holding up 11 of the highest-ranking officers so as not to capitulate completely to Democrats.
“We’re prepared to stay for as long as it takes to get these officers in position to lead our brave soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and guardians,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) after the Tuesday lunch.
After negotiations with Schumer, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) and other colleagues Tuesday, Tuberville relented and allowed the Senate to approve the 11 high-ranking officers without a single roll call vote.
Tuberville started holding up the nonpolitical military promotions in February to protest the Defense Department’s policy of reimbursing the travel expenses of service members who cross state lines to obtain abortions.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also told colleagues and reporters that while he also opposed the Pentagon’s abortion policies, he did not support Tuberville’s tactic of holding up military promotions.
The original article contains 844 words, the summary contains 211 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

37 comments