Senator Tommy Tuberville has just won a W against Chuck Schumer after he folded today in order to approve several military nominee promotions for the Department of Defense.
Tuberville has been holding up all nominees because of the Pentagon’s abortion policy that grants paid leave and travel reimbursement to troops seeking abortions.
Here’s more via Life News:
After insisting for months that Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville was solely responsible for the delay in approving senior military promotions, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer finally folded Wednesday and began to set up votes on three military officers.
The news will likely be seen as a win for Tuberville since it demonstrates that the Democratic leader could have made this move months ago. He appears to have been propelled into action by a maneuver from the Alabama senator —Tuberville had planned to bring a motion to the floor Wednesday to force a vote on Gen. Eric Smith’s promotion to U.S. Marine Corps commandant.
That vote was a new tactic in Tuberville’s months-long dispute with the Defense Department over its taxpayer-funded abortion policy, since it would have given Schumer the opportunity to vote on Smith’s promotion.
“One of us was bluffing,” Tuberville tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “It wasn’t me. Democrats are taking the same action they could’ve taken months ago. As long as the Pentagon keeps the unlawful elective abortion policy in place, my holds will remain.”
Tuberville began blocking the promotions in March, arguing the Pentagon’s policy was unlawfully implemented without congressional approval. He has vowed to not release his “hold” on the promotions until the policy is revoked.
I love that Tuberville’s blockade forced Schumer to reveal that he could have done this months ago and that he was lying about this the entire time. I don’t know how many promotions there are but I would imagine if Schumer had done them individually, he could have gotten quite a few done since March.
Schumer is now arguing that his move today means Tuberville has accomplished nothing since the Senate will approve these three promotions. But that’s not true either:
“In the end, the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to overcome Sen. Tuberville’s blockade of these three nominees by voting for cloture,” Schumer said Wednesday. “Then, the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to confirm them. And these three honorable men will finally be able to assume their positions. And the abortion policy that Sen. Tuberville abhors will remain in place. Sen. Tuberville will have accomplished nothing.”
Unless the Senate is willing to vote individually on all the military nominees, the senate majority leader’s remarks are likely not true — Tuberville will still be able to hold up nominees over the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
“Sen. Tuberville’s rarely used procedural maneuver would have threatened Sen. Schumer’s power by forcing a vote on the nomination,” Clint Brown, vice president of government relations at The Heritage Foundation, explained to The Daily Signal. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of the Heritage Foundation). “Rather than give up power, Schumer decided to schedule votes himself.”
“Through this trick play, Sen. ‘Coach’ Tuberville forced Schumer to show his hand that the Senate could have been voting on these noms all along,” Brown added. “This proves that it is Democrats who are unwilling to do the work to move these nominations. Still, if Democrats are unwilling to do the work of voting on each individual nominee, they could pressure DOD to rescind the immoral and legally suspect abortion policy.”
Yeah fat chance Schumer will concede on the abortion policy. He’ll take the Senate through hell and back to ensure the Pentagon’s abortion policy remains in place. Because like I suggested earlier, abortion is their sacred cow.