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For months, much of the political world overlooked Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade on military promotions, but as the Alabama Republican’s tantrum starts to actually affect the armed forces, the senator’s radical tactics have gone from the background to the foreground.
As we discussed last week, the pressure campaign to convince Tuberville to be more responsible includes U.S. military leaders. And veterans. And every living former secretary of Defense. And congressional Democrats. And the Lincoln Project, which launched this new ad last week, which will air on Fox News in the D.C. area and in Birmingham, Alabama. (It will also run digitally at several Marine bases.)
President Joe Biden added his voice last week, condemning the Alabaman’s “ridiculous” scheme, and telling the public that Tuberville is “jeopardizing U.S. security with what he’s doing.”
All of this appears to have gotten the senator’s attention, and late last week, he published a brief item online, suggesting he’s not to blame for his own gambit.
“I didn’t start this. The Biden [administration] injected politics in the military and imposed an unlawful abortion policy on American taxpayers. I am trying to get politics out of the military.”
Look, I realize that Tuberville is relatively new at this. He had a mediocre career as a college football coach, decided a few years ago that he should be a senator, spent much of his campaign hiding from voters, and is now a little too eager to use his power in ways he might not fully understand.
It's against this backdrop that the GOP senator has presented a defense that is difficult to take seriously.
If we’re going to have a conversation about who, specifically, “started this,” the story begins in earnst with Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices overturning Roe v. Wade. It was at that point that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin created a policy to ensure that all American troops have access to reproductive health care.
As an Associated Press report summarized last week, in a memo issued last year, “Austin said service members and their families were worried they may not get equal access to health care, including abortions. And as many states began to impose more abortion restrictions, he noted that service members who often must move for various missions or training would be forced to travel further, take more time off work and pay more to access reproductive health care.”
In other words, the Biden administration decided to provide U.S. military personnel with protections. This, in Tuberville’s mind, “injected politics” into the military — which left him no choice but to impose an unprecedented blockade that’s drawn bipartisan criticisms, and which continues to undermine his own country’s national security needs.
The move was and is necessary, the Republican added, because the administration’s policy is “unlawful.” (Tuberville has no legal background whatsoever. Actual lawyers have defended the Pentagon’s policy as entirely permissible.)
But whether the senator fully appreciates this or not, he has other options. If Tuberville is convinced the policy is at odds with existing law, he can support a lawsuit challenging the benefits for troops. He also happens to be a sitting U.S. senator who can do what senators are supposed to do: introduce legislation and make the case for its merits.
In other words, as the Republican suggests he has no other choice, the fact remains that he has other choices.
What the Alabaman prefers to do is effectively argue that the Pentagon is protecting troops in a way he disapproves of, which he believes absolves him of any wrongdoing as he throws a partisan tantrum that one general condemned last week as “reprehensible” and “dangerous.”
Tuberville “didn’t start this”? Not only does reality suggest otherwise, the GOP senator is in a position to end his blockade at any time. He just doesn’t want to, which makes it impossible for him to avoid the blame for his own tactics.