The idiotic US Senate Tuberville situation….

The Alabama Republican US Senator is holding up confirmation of military promotions ….

(He wants the Biden admin to stop supporting military abortion policy…).

There are hundreds of them…..

Why?

Because US Senate ‘rules’ allow a single membr to hold up a nomination that the Senate makes to ‘advise and consent’ per the Constitution …..

The senator’s action is NOT something of law…..

It’s a policy of the body….

It CAN be changed like it was for the ditching or Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court….

Again?

BOTH parties use the act….

BUT?

At what point do they let this go on before they temporarly drop the ‘stop’ thing and pass the nominations and promotion…..

“I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, told reporters recently when asked about Mr. Tuberville’s actions. That has not been enough to dissuade the Alabama senator or his staunch supporters in the G.O.P. ranks, who have stood in for him when he was not at the Capitol to press his objections to a policy that has angered the anti-abortion Republican base.

The resulting impasse is beginning to take a tangible toll on the military. On Monday, the first of the departing Joint Chiefs, Gen. David H. Berger, the Marine commandant, will retire in a “relinquishment of office” ceremony, leaving his current deputy and nominated successor, Gen. Eric Smith, to take over without Congress’s blessing….

…

Even some Senate Republicans who have stopped short of condemning Mr. Tuberville’s actions have nonetheless expressed concerns about how they might affect the military’s ability to respond to global threats.

“It’s a dangerous world right now, and we want to make sure that we’re not sacrificing readiness,” Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, recently told Politico.

Some caution that such concerns are overblown.

Mr. Tuberville’s blockade “does not endanger the United States, but it makes the institutions less agile and adaptive,” said Mark Cancian, a retired colonel from the Marine Forces Reserve and a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Referring to officials who are serving in an acting capacity, he said: “When you’re acting, you cannot give fundamental strategic guidance to the institution. You are a place holder.”

Mr. Tuberville rejects the notion that his objections will have a detrimental effect on the military, noting that in situations where a single senator denies the customary unanimous approval of a group of nominations or military promotions, the Senate can simply schedule individual votes on each one….

…

But that process can be extraordinarily time-consuming given the Senate’s rules and customs, and trying to confirm each of the hundreds of promotions individually could tie the chamber in knots….

More….