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It was roughly 24 hours ago when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the chamber’s floor about what final steps members would take before leaving for the holidays. Near the top of the list: Confirming the remaining military nominees who’d been subjected to Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade.
“We’re not quite done yet,” the New York Democrat said. “There are still 11 nominees that are awaiting confirmation. We will not leave town until every last one of these delayed nominees is finally confirmed. I hope we can do so quickly.”
Soon after, the far-right Alabaman, who largely abandoned his radical scheme a couple of weeks ago, suggested to Politico that he was prepared to drop the remainder of his holds. By the end of the day, Tuberville’s blockade was finally and completely over. NBC News reported:
The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed the remaining service members whose promotions had been held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville as part of his protest against the Defense Department’s abortion policy. “These 11 flag officers have now been approved, joining the rest of their colleagues who we approved a few weeks ago. That’s good news,” said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the Senate floor.
When the Alabama Republican backed off his blockade earlier this month, he narrowed the focus of his tactic: Tuberville said he would only maintain holds on military officers up for four-star positions. It was never altogether clear why, exactly, he wanted to delay these highly decorated servicemembers, but the GOP senator apparently thought he might be able to leverage their nominations for some kind of concessions.
That didn’t happen.
Indeed, as the entire fiasco comes to an ignominious end, this remains one of the most important takeaways of the unnecessary ordeal: Tuberville spent 10 months undermining his own country’s armed forces, and he has nothing to show for it.
In early December, the Republican was asked whether he had any regrets. “It was pretty much a draw,” Tuberville said. “I mean, they didn’t get what they wanted. We didn’t get what we wanted.”
That didn’t make any sense. The whole point of Tuberville’s tantrum was opposition to the Pentagon providing travel reimbursements to U.S. troops who need reproductive care in red states. The GOP lawmaker said he’d continue to hurt the military until the Pentagon changed its policy.
The Pentagon never changed its policy. On the contrary, the Defense Department refused to pay a ransom, and Tuberville ultimately backed down. “Draw” isn’t the first word that comes to mind.
As the dust settles on the debacle, some might want to see this as an all’s-well-that-ends-well story, but it’s not. For one thing, it’s going to take time for the armed forces to recover from the effects of Tuberville’s blockade.
But reiterating a point we discussed a couple of weeks ago, no one should be surprised if there are lasting effects for Tuberville personally. The Alabama Republican’s reputation on Capitol Hill wasn’t great headed into 2023, and after spending a year hurting the U.S. military during international crises, he shouldn’t expect to end up on any “Most Respected Members of Congress” lists anytime soon.
Indeed, it was just last month when several Senate Republicans decided they’d seen enough of Tuberville’s blockade, and they publicly accused the coach-turned-politician of, among other things, being dishonest, damaging the military during international crises, assisting U.S. adversaries abroad, and relying on tactics that were “ridiculous” and “dumb.”
Or put another way, the Alabaman didn’t just needlessly hurt the military, he also did lasting harm to his own credibility and stature, in exchange for nothing.
For his part, when President Joe Biden issued a written statement celebrating the end of the blockade, the Democrat said, “In the end, this was all pointless. Senator Tuberville, and the Republicans who stood with him, needlessly hurt hundreds of servicemembers and military families and threatened our national security — all to push a partisan agenda. I hope no one forgets what he did.”
This post updates our related earlier coverage.