Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville Ā® said he voted against the nomination of the Pentagonās next Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman over the military officerās push to promote āwoke policies.ā
Tuberville said he objected Air Force Gen. Charles āCQā Brown Jr.ās efforts to recruit and promote racial minorities in the ranks. He argued that such equal opportunity efforts threaten military readiness.
āI heard some things he talked about, about race and things that he wanted to mix into the military,ā he told Bloomberg Televisionās āBalance of Powerā on Tuesday. āOur military is not an equal opportunity employer. Weāre looking for the best of the best to do whatever. Weāre not looking for different groups, social justice groups. We donāt want to single-handedly destroy our military from within.ā
Tubervilleās comments are not entirely accurate, as the U.S. military since 1948 has had an equal opportunity policy, signed into law by President Truman via an executive order. The effort desegregated the military and guaranteed āequality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.ā
In the Senate, things like military promotions are generally done through a process called āUnanimous Consentā. Meaning āWe all agree, we donāt need to vote on this.ā
This is important for things like military promotions where there may be hundreds of them per year, if the Senate stopped to vote on each and every one of them, nothing else would get done.
BUUUUTā¦ thereās that word āUnanimousā. It has to be all 100 Senators agreeing to move forward and in this case, Tuberville is that 1 in 100.
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/15/1187530846/tuberville-senate-rules-abortion-military
So, as far as removing himā¦ Thereās a couple of problems with that:
Heās playing by the Senate rules, thereās nothing saying he CANāT do this, heās just being an asshole about it.
The only way to remove a sitting Senator is by a 2/3rds vote of the Senate and nobody has a 2/3rds vote. 67 is a high bar and in most cases, they canāt get the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster on a vote.
Oh I see. Very interesting. So he is literally the only one holding it up, itās not like a group. 99 vs 1.
Quite the predicament. Holding on I dare say in hope a certain Cheeto returns so they can put in their own guys?
Thatās the going theory, but also this:
Tuberville is one of the Senators from Alabama, a state known for being notoriously racist.
One of the highest ranking people being blocked is this guy. Huh, you donāt sayā¦
Fortunately the rest of the Senate decided to hold a vote and confirm him anyway, because the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff just canāt be allowed to remain vacant.