The Republican senator from Alabama spent 2023 turning himself into one of the most hated men in Washington—even by members of his own party.

Senator Tommy Tuberville’s nearly yearlong protest against the Department of Defense’s abortion policy brings to mind an old Chinese proverb that translates to, “He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.” It means that when you take on something risky—or in this case, downright stupid—it’s easier to keep going than to face the consequences of trying to stop.

For nine months, Tuberville single-handedly blocked more than 450 military promotions, throwing the entire U.S. military into disarray. According to the Alabama Republican, this was the best way to protest the department’s policy of reimbursing service members who have to travel out of their state of deployment for an abortion.

Tuberville partially relented on December 5, when he agreed to allow most of those promotions to go forward with the exception of four-star generals. He then dropped those remaining holds this week, and the Senate promptly confirmed 11 nominees to that position.

After all those months of protesting, Tuberville accomplished … nothing. The Defense Department’s abortion policy is still in place. The only difference is that now, all of the department leadership and pretty much every other senator is angry with him.

  • tygerprints@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    Blocking military promotions just because his pink panties are in a twist about the military’s stance on abortions is basically a kind of blackmail. And just another example of the hate-filled kind of idiotic excrementalism that makes up the bulk of the GOP today.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      the military’s stance on abortions

      That’s a deflecting issue, he was trying to set it up so trump can put his own people in the military.

  • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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    10 months ago

    And a liar:

    He brought increased scrutiny on himself, resulting in multiple damaging revelations. Despite promising in 2020 to donate “every dime” he makes in Washington to veterans’ causes, Tuberville has yet to actually do so. He appears to have completely fabricated his father’s military record, and he has lived in Florida, not Alabama, for nearly two decades.

    Military leaders called him out by name, accusing him of “aiding and abetting Communist and other autocratic regimes”—a devastating insult for any Republican but especially a far-right one.

  • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    With a name like that he’d be better suited to be a potato farmer, somewhere remote where he can’t fuck with servicemembers lives and leave America less safe.