Senator Malevolent Idiot, R-Alabama

When two people who sleep in the same bed write about the same thing...

Tommy Tuberville has been holding up military promotions since February.

It seems oddly appropriate that after NINE months, other Republican senators are finally against supporting Tuberville’s ill-conceived idea. Kind of like they are with pregnancies they want to force women to carry to term; they’re all for it but don’t call them when you need money for medical care, childcare, or food and housing assistance.

Senator Tuberville from Alabama began holding up military promotions because he opposes a Department of Defense policy that allows military personnel and their family members to be reimbursed for travel expenses when they need to leave the state where they have been assigned to live if they require medical care that, due to Republicans’ radical policies and a partisan Supreme Court, is not available in every state. That’s how the military works: You live where they tell you to live regardless of whether or not you actually want to live there. 

DOD implemented this policy because many states with large military populations no longer allow women access to reproductive care causing them to become de facto refugees forced to travel in order to get medical care. If there’s one thing Republicans like to hate, it’s refugees! 

But seriously that’s what this is all about: A policy that prioritizes taking care of people by saying, “We know we have assigned you to live in a state that does not allow a medical procedure you need and and would be available to you if you were living in a different state so we are going to allow you to go take care of yourself without having to use vacation days and we will cover your travel expenses because we are committed to taking care of our people and making sure they are able to take care of themselves.”

Sounds like a reasonable thing to do for the less than 1% of the US population who *along with their families* have committed to serve their nation and defend us up to and including in combat. 

I want to be really clear on this point: Tuberville is not objecting to the Department of Defense and taxpayer money being spent on reproductive care, he is objecting to the reimbursement of travel expenses. I’m sure the good senator has plenty of thoughts about what women should do with their bodies but that’s not even the part he’s objecting to with this…he is literally fighting to not have to pay for someone’s stay at a Marriott Courtyard while they get the medical care they need.

I am so tired of living in a Gilead fan fiction scenario written by absolute morons.

Alex wrote about the national security threat of Tuberville’s hold and how damaging and weakening it’s been but that’s not my wheelhouse. 

What I do know about is how this political performative theater has affected people —in particular the trickle down damage to military spouses and children — because it has affected my friends. While some promotions have been released, they weren’t for a long time and that meant moves were delayed way beyond the typical (and ideal) summer moving season. Children started school late and spouses missed out on job opportunities because they didn’t know when they would be able to move.

As of today, about 400 senior officers are still awaiting approval of their promotions and while they are waiting, people are watching. Our adversaries are watching to see how vulnerable this makes us. Our allies are watching to see how this affects our alliances and readiness. Our military families are watching and wondering how the continued politicalization of the military might one day affect them and whether or not it is worth it. At a time when fewer are committing to serve in the armed forces we are showing the people who have made that sacrifice how easily they can become pawns in someone else’s chess game. Considering this Tommy Tubberville, it’s more like a high stakes game of Connect Four. 

Senator Tuberville who has never served in uniform continually says, “there’s nobody more military than me,” because he possesses negative levels of self-awareness, is painfully stupid, and exceptionally inarticulate. In September he posted a video in which he said “I don’t know what they do every day [at the Pentagon] but they’re more of people who give advice,” and then he went on to say they’re Joe Biden civilian appointees. Did you hear that Pentagon personnel? The 12+ hour days you spend at work have been deemed meaningless by a football-coach-cum-senator who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Most Republican senators have stayed silent but Mike Lee of Utah is always happy to add some disinformation fuel to the fire — remember when he sent texts to Mark Meadows about election fraud allegations and he was all “please give me something to work with. I just need to know what I should be saying!” and the next day he said, “Please tell me what I should be saying.” — has repeatedly tried to frame the DOD policy as funding abortion travel. That is not what this is! This is about ensuring equality in access to care to the people who live wherever the military tells them to live in order to serve our nation.

On Wednesday some Republican senators finally found the courage to confront Tuberville on the Senate floor where they yelled at him for about five hours. All it took was General Eric Smith suffering cardiac arrest after months of serving as both the commandant and assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

Here are some shockingly frank quotes from that evening:

Senator Lindsey Graham speaking about Laura Lenderman who has been selected for promotion to lieutenant general and slated to become deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces: “You just denied this lady a promotion. YOU did that. Who the hell wants to serve in the military when your promotion can be canned over something you have nothing to do with?” He went on to say, “No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military.” A rare moment of lucidity from the senior senator of South Carolina.

Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska gets it. He said, “The key is you put a hold on someone who typically has some kind of control over the issue you’re trying to fix. Why are we putting holds on war heroes?” He added, “Xi Jinping is loving this. So is Putin. How dumb can we be, man?” Ummmmm, I don’t think we want to lay down the gauntlet and challenge someone to out-stupid himself.

I IMPLORE YOU to call your senators. It will be a quick call—no more than 10 minutes to call both—and let them know how you feel about this. You can also tag them in social media posts and email their offices. Active duty military personnel and their families cannot speak out about these issues and it is incumbent on us to speak for them.