Sen. Tuberville is personally holding up about 300 military appointments in an attempt to force an anti abortion policy on DoD. Holds happen for political reasons and always have. My own promotion to Commander was delayed in the Senate due to the Tailhook scandal back in the 1990s. Leaving aside the question of whether Tuberville has a legitimate gripe, I can’t figure out why nothing is being done. The Majority Leader and Vice President are both Democrats and Mitch McConnell has little sympathy for the Religious Right. So are they just accumulating ammunition for the 2024 election?
If you're Majority Leader, and you start messing with the power you've delegated to individual Senators in their little bailiwicks, then when it comes time to your caucus to reappoint you, you'll find yourself facing a credible challenger. And despite McConnell being in his 80s and showing signs of neurological problems (that "turtle in the headlights" thing has happened more than once in public), he claims he's not going anywhere. It's like Washington has become this weird version of Grace and Frankie or something.
Republicans created this mess by their meddling in women's reproductive health. The military fixed some of it. Tuberville is not addressing that; he's complaining about it and punishing the military in unrelated ways. Individual voting to approve these promotions would take hundreds of hours I'm not in favor of (a) giving in to Tuberville or (b) changing the Senate's processes to accommodate his hissy fit.
Just hang it around the GOP's collective neck? That's probably a good political move but not best for the country.
My understanding is that the military hasn't changed any of the rules that Tommy Tupperville is protesting since the reversal of Roe v Wade.
