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.”
It’s never a Republican’s fault. Always. Everyone else’s around them. There may be more democrats could do. But this falls squarely on Tubervils shoulder.
Let me tell you the story of the scorpion and the frog.
The scorpion wants to punish women for having sex because he believes that if he is cruel enough, he gets to hang out with his invisible friend, who happens to be the creator of the universe, after the scorpion dies.
The frog could stop the scorpion from making people suffer, but the frog needs votes and donations to stay in power, and nothing motivates donors and voters like hatred. The woodland creatures who support the frog hate the scorpion, so the frog ignores the scorpion while complaining that there’s nothiny he can do.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/11/01/politics/schumer-tuberville-military-nominations/index.html
I neve said it wasn’t Tuberville’s fault. I’m frustrated that the Senate Democrats didn’t just go around him because they wanted the political pressure to grow.
Storytelling is not your thing.
Perhaps not.
I actually thought it was an interesting take on an old parable. The frog might actually be another scorpion though. And the woodland creatures secretly support both scorpions to ensure that neither one stings them.
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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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I dunno you seemed awfully ready to blame democrats for not dropping all other Senate business. To hold hundreds of cloture votes to work through the backlog of better part of a decade. Which is a bit of a ridiculous ask. When it would make much more sense for A. the Republicans to a do their job or for B. Ranking Republicans to do their job and revoke his committee status. Replacing him with another Republican willing to do the job.
Because let’s be clear here. Someone who would seek to blame democrats for not doing something to resolve this. Would just as disingenuously blame democrats for dropping all the actual things they were supposed to be doing just to take care of all the things one senator has blocked. Because it’s not just one senator. It’s all Republicans. They could replace Tuberville on any committee if they wanted to. They don’t want to.
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There’s a thought experiment about babies in a river. Do you save each baby as it floats down the river, or do you go upriver to stop them from throwing babies in?
If you choose to stay, are you enabling the baby throwers?
If you go, are you consigning all the babies that are thrown to death while you search?
It’s not black and white. There’s no good solution when bad actors are doing bad things. A coordinated response would be great, but at the same time, this is a constant problem. It’s not like Democrats haven’t been trying to get “reasonable republicans” to handle their own shit for decades. It’s not like republicans won’t have another mole pop up after this one gets whacked back into his hole.
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Ok, but what if you stand on the side of the river and call everyone over to watch them throw babies in the river because it makes you look better by comparison? If you honestly believe there are any “reasonable Republicans” you haven’t been paying attention.
I used quotes around that because I do not believe it.
But a bunch of idiots do, and politicians have to have some backing from those idiots, so even though everyone knows these people are shills and grifters, they have to pay lip service to the idea that they’ll do the reasonable thing, and hope that eventually cultists start dropping out and realizing they’ve been duped.
You can lead a horse to water and all that.
The GOP could kick Tuberville out. But they won’t so they are part of the problem
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The dems could also just confirm these hundreds of people unilaterally in a single batch, but they won’t so they are the actual problem.