Republican Senators have had it with fellow Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville

Keith

Nov 4

In an article by Joe Gould and Connor O'Brien in Politico yesterday called "Republicans, fed up with Tuberville, plot ways to bust his military blockade," fellow Republican Senators have pushed back on their colleague for his grandstanding blockage of military nominees. Here are a few paragraphs that capture the gist.

"Republicans have had it with Sen. Tommy Tuberville's nine-month blockade of military promotions. And after publicly putting pressure on the Alabama Republican to lift his hold on hundreds of officers, GOP senators are plotting new ways to break the impasse.

During a special meeting planned for next week, some will ask Tuberville to focus his obstruction on only the Pentagon's civilian nominees and not uniformed officers who have nothing to do with the policy he's protesting. Others want to shift the fight to the courts to challenge the policy at the center of the hold, which reimburses troops who have to travel to obtain abortions and other reproductive services."

For the longest time, Republican Senators have been trying to dissuade Tuberville to cease his one person fight holding up needed appointees in our military. Our armed forces have been hamstrung by the gridlock and these fellow Senators have said "Coach," as Tuberville likes to be called, is hurting the nation and their party. Coach is not being a very good teammate.

Yet, what has ticked his fellow Republicans even more is a leaked memo by one of his staff saying Republican critics should be "primaried" trying to oust them. This prima Donna type action on an unpopular issue had made Coach quite unpopular. He earned this right. Not that my opinion counts for much, but I called him twice to plead with him to cease this hold-up. He is using the wrong place to push his message.

It reminds me a little of the Westboro Baptist Church who picketed military funerals to show their displeasure over gays and lesbians being allowed in the military. Coach is holding up national security as he doesn't like reproductive services being paid for by the health care plan. If this is his issue, he should find other ways to advocate for it than putting people in harm's way. And, he certainly should not condone the primary threat of his colleagues.