FINALLY, a senator with something between his legs that many of his so-called GOP counterparts lack and have always lacked, including McCarthy. That fellow ceases to amaze me how he can classify himself as a Republican. This is exactly how congress can get everyone’s attention. Tommy doesn’t care about votes like all the rest of them do, he’s doing what’s right. Never heard of him before, but I know of him now!
From the Wall Street Journal Alabama Senator’s Military Roadblock Draws Criticism
BY NANCY A. Y OUSSEF AND LINDSAY WISE WASHINGTON—Many of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s colleagues say he is making bad calls.
The Alabama Republican lawmaker has thrown a roadblock in front of promotions for all senior military officers, drawing criticism from the White House as well as Republican and Democratic lawmakers. He also came under fire over his comments about white supremacists in the military, a controversy he tried to tamp down this week.
Tuberville, a former college football coach who guided Auburn University to a South-eastern Conference title, won election to the Senate representing his deep-red state in 2020. He was backed by then-President Donald Trump in the Republican primary over Trump’s onetime attorney general Jeff Sessions. In the general election, Tuberville defeated Democratic incumbent Sen. Doug Jones and he has had a conservative voting record since taking office.
The 68-year-old thrust himself into the spotlight earlier this year when he announced he would block the promotions for top military generals and admirals until the Pentagon agrees to end its policy allowing troops leave and travel funds for reproductive healthcare, including abortion. He has said he won’t lift his hold on the promotions until the military changes its policy or Congress passes a measure codifying the policy.
Tuberville said he doesn’t believe the holds are affecting military readiness. He said this week that there had been no progress toward lifting them. “Zero conversations. Same as usual.”
While senators sometimes put holds on Pentagon political appointees who have policy- making responsibilities, the Tuberville move breaks with Senate tradition as it applies to career military officers. The standoff has created hundreds of vacancies at the top of the military, including the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.
“It’s totally inappropriate. It’s outrageous,” President Biden said last month. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has also criticized the effort. “I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations,” he said in May.
Tuberville has also struggled to quell another controversy related to the Pentagon’s effort to root out extremism in its ranks.
In a radio interview in May, when asked if he believed that white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, Tuberville responded: “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”
He criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for “saying we’re going to run out white nationalists, people that don’t believe how we believe.”
In 2021, Austin ordered a daylong stand-down for forces to discuss combating extremism within the ranks following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. A working group then recommended changes to Pentagon policy on how the department defined extremist activities and how the force should address an individual suspected of participating in such activities. A review found roughly 100 cases of troops engaged in extremist activities.
Tuberville, who has said conservatives are often unfairly called racists, defended his comments on white nationalism, including to CNN on Monday. He condemned racism but declined to say white nationalism was by definition racist. “That’s your opinion,” he told the CNN host.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) urged Tuberville to apologize.
McConnell, asked about Tuberville’s comments, said, “White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country.”
Some colleagues said Tuberville had been unfairly maligned.
“I don’t sense from Tommy that he’s a bigot in any way, a racist,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.). “I mean, my gosh, the guy’s a college football coach…he’s certainly been around a multicultural world view.”
After a closed-door Senate GOP lunch Tuesday afternoon, Tuberville altered his stance. “White nationalists are racists,” he told reporters.
The same day, Tuberville’s hold on military nominees came under scrutiny on Capitol Hill as Biden’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, sat for his confirmation hearing.
Brown told the Senate Armed Services Committee the hold could affect both retention and recruiting, adding that it was forcing some generals to put off retirement and leading junior officers to reconsider their military careers. —Dustin Volz and Simon J. Levien contributed to this article.
Tuberville also came under fire over comments about white supremacists.
It sickens me how the so-called GOP senators can possibly condemn and criticize him for doing what needs to be done. You want to get the military’s attention this is exactly how to do it. Keep it up Tommy my man, go get em’! Wish my Florida senators had your set.
Good article. Keep it up Tommy.
The Senator is within his rights. I support his position on this issue 100%. Our military is becoming politically soft and way to damn liberal. If we continue down this road we will loose the next war badly. Service in the military is not a right it is a privilege. The purpose of the military is to defend the nation and destroy it’s enemies through violence of action and combat, anything that gets in the way of that must be cut out like a cancer.
Good for Tuberville! I’m female and this gets all over me. Join the military and keep your knees together! Either you want to serve this country or you want to breed. Make up your mind. And as for the other issue: Exactly how many real white supremacists would join a racially mixed military? How could they function? And maybe I am ignorant of term definitions but a white nationalist is someone that loves his country and would prefer this remain a European ancestry majority because of cultural differences. But he is by no means violent or filled with hate for other races. They merely resent forced mass invasions by other cultures without first legally obtaining citizenship to ensure fidelity to this country as it was always done. Maybe I’m ignorant. We need more Tubervilles.
Very well put Hazel, you should have written the article for him. Loved the comment about women and the military. Thank you!
The Senator is over and on target. He lives truth and now can speak it in action. Only a fool, or something worse, would think otherwise. Chuck Johnson respectfully sends
I’m with Senator Tuberville on this. As for blocked promotions, as a senior officer selected for promotion to Colonel in the Marine Corps, I had to wait two years before being next on the list for promotion. During the two year period, I was not paid as a Colonel even though I would otherwise be paid when my name came up to pin on the next rank. I essentially forfeited two years of Colonel pay even though I was not at the Tailhook Convention where a woman Navy officer was questionably abused. A Navy admiral refused to listen to her complaints and so it became a federal case. Officers selected for promotion were held up. I am an aviator with two years as senior naval officer at the NCIS. I but never attended Tailhook, but paid the price as if I had been there.
Meantime, some of my peers were frocked to Colonel. I was not bitter about it and never served for the money anyway. But, I’m not sympathetic to those being held up for promotion now. And Chuck Schumer should either retire or resign. He, Nadler, Comey, Strock and the other Russia hoax FISA violators should be criminally charged, starting with conspiracy and leading to indictment for other serious crimes. The aforementioned names are of persons who seek to destroy this country and are avowed to alter or eliminate the Constitution while claiming to protect democracy. To a man, they are the most hypocritical individuals alive in recent times. And, the working press is right there along with them. We know who the enemies are. They are elite and mostly white supremacists.
Semper Fi,
David “Phantom” Swan
Well put Phantom!! Remember the incident well and time well.
Jim, when Schumer says you should apologize, you know you are on the right track !! Thanks for posting this. I haven’t followed him much but will start to pay more attention. He’s got a set for sure, and, it’s about time we had more “sets” in both houses of Congress.
doug
Simple. The administration is wrong. It needs to cancel its illegal abortion policy. Problem solved.
There is a lot more to this bag than just that Bill. And you know damned well they won’t, but Tommy has found a way to make them do or die.
Senator Tuberville is on target with this one. The Supreme Court even reads the Constitution in a similar manner. The mothers and father of America who give us their children to defend our Nation deserve nothing less.
Thanx Kevin