Senate confirms three big military picks after GOP turns on Tuberville
The Senate confirmed three more nominees for high-ranking military posts Thursday, a day after Republicans railed against Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama over his hold on hundreds of Pentagon appointments.
The upper chamber voted 95-1 to confirm Adm. Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations, while Gen. David Allvin was confirmed by the same margin to be Air Force chief of staff, and Christopher Mahoney was affirmed as assistant Marine Corps commandant by 86-0.
With her confirmation, Franchetti becomes the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The confirmations came after a procession of GOP senators took to the Senate floor Wednesday night to scold Tuberville after he objected to a speedy vote on 61 nominations as part of his ongoing protest against a Pentagon policy covering out-of-state travel for troops to receive reproductive procedures, such as abortions and in-vitro fertilization.
“Xi Jinping is loving this. So is Putin,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said at one point. “How dumb can we be, man?”
“I’m as pro-life as they come!” Sullivan added. “America needs to have our best players, most combat-capable leaders on the field.”
A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which can approve several military nominations at once, Tuberville has the power to block rapid confirmations because the committee must be unanimous on such decisions.
That forces the Senate to go through regular order, a time-consuming process. In late September, the White House estimated that it would take 700 hours — nearly a month of straight work — to confirm all 300-plus outstanding nominees through regular order.
Around the same time, the upper chamber circumvented Tuberville’s blockade by voting to confirm Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Randy A. George was similarly confirmed as Army chief of staff, while Marine Gen. Eric M. Smith was confirmed as the Corps’ new commandant.
Some of the strongest words against Tuberville came from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), an Iraq War veteran, who claimed Tuberville had backed the confirmation of one of the officers whose promotion he was holding up.
“We have done the best we can to honor the request of a fellow senator that these nominations be brought to the floor and voted on individually,” she said. “I really respect men of their word. I do not respect men who do not honor their word.”
“Everybody in this body could find an issue with any administration they don’t agree with and what we’re going to do is open up Pandora’s box,” warned Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
“Who the hell wants to serve in the military when your promotion can be canned over something you have nothing to do with?” he asked. “If you think it’s illegal, go to court!”
GOP frustrations with Tuberville’s blockade have been simmering for months, but the recent war in Israel coupled with a spate of attacks on US forces in the Middle East — as well as Smith’s recent hospitalization after suffering a heart attack — were seemingly the last straw.
“I want the American people to know,” Sullivan said. “Right now, 376 promotions to one, two, three and four-star generals and admirals are being held. It is estimated that by the end of this year, 89% of all general officer positions in the United States military will be affected by the current holds from Senator Tuberville.
“This is hugely disruptive to readiness,” Sullivan added.
Tuberville refused to back down, saying at one point: “I have to respectfully disagree with my colleagues about the effect of my hold on readiness. My hold is not affecting readiness.”
“I hate that I have to do this,” added the former college football coach, “but somebody’s gotta listen to us.”
“If I thought there was any problem with readiness, we wouldn’t be doing this,” Tuberville told reporters Thursday, complaining his colleagues had swerved into “a little character assassination” the previous evening.
“We went through something last night,” he added. “We’ll work through this.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has decided to back a plan by Senate Democrats to tweak the rules to allow votes on all outstanding nominees at once.
That concept, which has been pitched by Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) will need to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in order to take effect.
Read the full article Here
