We live in a political era when \u201cshow\u201d is more important than \u201cgo\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Today\u2019s case in point, is the \u201cprincipled\u201d stand that Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is taking in the US Senate.\u00a0\u00a0Tuberville is against abortions, all abortions.\u00a0\u00a0And since he is unable to pass any legislation to end abortion, he\u2019s decided to take\u00a0\u00a0a \u201cprincipled stand\u201d. He’s against abortions in the US military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US military has \u201cevolved\u201d from the days of an all-male force.\u00a0\u00a0Over seventeen percent of the active military today; more than 230,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines; are women.\u00a0\u00a0As part of the military, they are all guaranteed health care.\u00a0\u00a0With the\u00a0Dobbs\u00a0<\/em>Supreme Court decision, different states have differing laws regarding abortion. Some states completely ban it, others allow some or most abortion procedures.\u00a0\u00a0The US military stations personnel all over the country.\u00a0\u00a0The Defense Department recognizes that the women under its command need full access to health care. It provides time off and travel expenses for their personnel who need abortion-care to go to states where they can access it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coach Tuberville doesn\u2019t like that.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s demanding that the Defense Department require its personnel to \u201cabide\u201d by the health laws of the state they are stationed in.\u00a0\u00a0So a Marine in California would be able to access abortion care, while an Airman in Texas would not.\u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s the \u201crub\u201d between the Coach and the DoD.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defense Secretary (and Four Star General) Lloyd Austin understands the morale issue that would be created by this disparity.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s unwilling to \u201cenforce\u201d Tuberville\u2019s demands.\u00a0\u00a0And since he won\u2019t, the former football Coach from Auburn found a way to \u201cexpress\u201d his displeasure.\u00a0\u00a0He won\u2019t allow any promotions of general officers through the United States Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A little process and procedure:\u00a0\u00a0every general officer promotion has to be approved by the US Senate as part of their \u201cadvise and consent\u201d power.\u00a0\u00a0Traditionally, those promotions are passed by unanimous consent in the Senate.\u00a0\u00a0Usually, no Senator wants to be the \u201cone voice\u201d stopping the improved effectiveness of our Armed Forces.\u00a0\u00a0The unanimous consent process allows the Senate to bypass the \u201cregular order\u201d, where each promotion would have to come to the \u201cfloor\u201d for debate, discussion and vote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that doesn\u2019t seem like such a big deal. But when there are three hundred and seventy-eight promotions in line, it represents hundreds of hours of debate and discussion.\u00a0\u00a0If the Senate were to pass those in \u201cregular order\u201d, with required waiting times between motion, debate, and vote \u2013 they wouldn\u2019t get anything else done for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Tuberville\u2019s single \u201cNay\u201d to unanimous consent, has prevented all of the general officers promotions for the past ten months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Republican Minority Leader McConnell called on Tuberville to end his blockade.\u00a0\u00a0And while the Senate has moved a few single officers, including the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Chief of Naval Operations; the vast majority of promotions are on hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0And it\u2019s not just the additional stars (and pay increase).\u00a0\u00a0Command tours of duty are ending, and replacements cannot take over.\u00a0\u00a0Temporary commands are being held by \u201cdeputies\u201d, while the replacements are literally sitting, waiting for promotion and orders to report to their new stations.\u00a0\u00a0Everything from Naval carrier squadrons to regional Army commands are impacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To outsiders, the easy \u201cfix\u201d is simply to ignore Tuberville, and pass the promotions ninety-nine to one. But doing so strikes at the very heart of Senate tradition; the power of the filibuster. Each Senator has the ability to stop legislation by \u201cholding the floor\u201d and requiring sixty Senators to vote for \u201ccloture\u201d, that is, vote to take away the floor from that individual Senator. The process of cloture is intentionally difficult and time-consuming. And that\u2019s the problem: Coach Tuberville would require cloture for every, single, promotion, if he continues to refuses to agree to unanimous consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The power to filibuster is \u201cnear and dear\u201d to every Senator.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s what makes the Senate different from the House, where the majority has almost unfettered power to drive their agenda.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what we see now in the House, where Democrats are narrowly the minority (five votes) but have little to say about process, procedure, or substance; other than be a vocal opponent.\u00a0\u00a0But any single Senator, of either Party, can make their very public point by bringing the Senate, and therefore the Congress, to a standstill with their lone voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuberville isn\u2019t budging, even after the opprobrium dumped on him this week from his own fellow Republican Senators.\u00a0\u00a0This is the issue the Coach is going to make, the \u201chill he\u2019s willing to die on\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Department of Defense, at the behest of the Biden White House, isn\u2019t moving either.\u00a0\u00a0And as much as Senators want to pass military promotions, few are willing to give up the filibuster to do so.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s a matter of what they consider \u201creally\u201d important.\u00a0\u00a0If the filibuster is short-circuited for Tuberville, it could be short-circuited for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So our entire military structure waits, on standby, with temporary deputies running high commands, and the next class of General officers waiting on the sidelines:\u00a0\u00a0all to please Coach Tommy. And no one can do anything about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unanimous Consent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Fix<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Hill to Die On<\/h3>\n\n\n\n