The sun will be nothing but a lukewarm ember before Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the often racist college football coach who Alabama Republicans decided to inflict on the rest of the country, ever learns a lesson. Tuberville has put a one-man hold on all military promotions significant enough to require Senate confirmation. He has now blocked over 300 promotions and appointments. Tuberville vows his hold will end only when the U.S. military voids its current policy granting extended travel options for service members seeking abortion care, and when it instead agrees to make those rules what former college football coach Tommy Tuberville thinks they should be.
But perhaps only Tuberville could insert himself as the supposed victim of unfair treatment in all this.
The rule change he's talking about is the one in which at least nine Republican senators would need to join with Democrats to tweak the Senate rule that's enabled Tuberville's one-man holds, releasing most but not all of them for a Senate vote.
Tuberville's top-level holds would remain in place and still require one-by-one confirmation votes. Those details are what's being "negotiated" now, precisely as Tuberville is demanding. But Tuberville is not in those bipartisan negotiations, and if you ask him, having the will of three-fifths of the Senate prevail over a guy whose official Senate portrait shows him posing with a football will be the end of the Senate as we know it.
Yes, imagine a filibuster-overcoming majority having the gall to all vote together to repair the damage you've done by using the "rules" to insert yourself as shadow commander in chief in an attempt to exercise authority you were never supposed to have to begin with. Can you believe the rudeness of ... all those other people?
The odds that a bipartisan deal to overcome Tuberville's holds will come to fruition remain low, mainly because most senators remain fans of their own ability to unilaterally sabotage other Senate business and don't want it weakened even if Tuberville's version might be harming military readiness.
Tuberville's outrage that it might happen, though, is more than a bit maudlin. It's akin to chaining yourself to the front gate of a military base, blocking anyone from getting in or out, only to have a dozen MPs take the gate off its hinges and drag both you and it to the side of the road. Technically, they're not supposed to be doing that—but technically, you were never supposed to park your butt there to begin with. Yelling that they broke the rules just makes you look like a whiny dork.
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Senate Democrats eye end run around Tuberville’s military promotion blockade
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Military leaders speak out to push Tuberville on nominations
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But perhaps only Tuberville could insert himself as the supposed victim of unfair treatment in all this.
The rule change he's talking about is the one in which at least nine Republican senators would need to join with Democrats to tweak the Senate rule that's enabled Tuberville's one-man holds, releasing most but not all of them for a Senate vote.
Tuberville's top-level holds would remain in place and still require one-by-one confirmation votes. Those details are what's being "negotiated" now, precisely as Tuberville is demanding. But Tuberville is not in those bipartisan negotiations, and if you ask him, having the will of three-fifths of the Senate prevail over a guy whose official Senate portrait shows him posing with a football will be the end of the Senate as we know it.
Yes, imagine a filibuster-overcoming majority having the gall to all vote together to repair the damage you've done by using the "rules" to insert yourself as shadow commander in chief in an attempt to exercise authority you were never supposed to have to begin with. Can you believe the rudeness of ... all those other people?
The odds that a bipartisan deal to overcome Tuberville's holds will come to fruition remain low, mainly because most senators remain fans of their own ability to unilaterally sabotage other Senate business and don't want it weakened even if Tuberville's version might be harming military readiness.
Tuberville's outrage that it might happen, though, is more than a bit maudlin. It's akin to chaining yourself to the front gate of a military base, blocking anyone from getting in or out, only to have a dozen MPs take the gate off its hinges and drag both you and it to the side of the road. Technically, they're not supposed to be doing that—but technically, you were never supposed to park your butt there to begin with. Yelling that they broke the rules just makes you look like a whiny dork.
RELATED STORIES:
Senate Democrats eye end run around Tuberville’s military promotion blockade
Tuberville antics wearing thin with Republicans
Military leaders speak out to push Tuberville on nominations
Campaign Action