Republicans betraying Tommy Tuberville’s lonely stand expose DC’s lazy corruption
Chris Bedford
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Republican politicians like to pretend they care a whole lot about the politicization of the Pentagon, taxpayer dollars paying for abortion, and fighting the White House’s agenda. When fighting these battles bothers the Pentagon too much, they’ll turn on the ones doing the fighting.
This is the case for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has been battling the Pentagon’s illegal abortion policies for over a year, and for his troubles faced hours of blistering attacks from his own Republican colleagues Wednesday night. Next week, those same Republicans plan to alter Senate rules to derail his brave fight against a politicized Pentagon.
The battle began after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, restricting abortion in states that voted to do so. In response, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced his department would pay for travel and hotels, etc., for any service members seeking an abortion. By paying for everything but the procedure itself, Austin hoped to skirt a law banning taxpayer dollars from being spent on abortion. Alabama’s freshman senator believed this too cute by half and announced he would block unanimous consent votes for any military general or flag officer promotions until the Pentagon relented.
Tuberville might not have realized this at the time, but he had picked a lonely battle. While his colleagues all pay lip service to pro-life causes, Washington veterans know the Pentagon (and whatever it wants) is sacrosanct among Washington Republicans. As conflicts around the world intensified and the list of blocked promotions grew, so did the angst of his fellow members. Their vitriol finally spilled into the open when Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Todd Young (R-IN), and Mitt Romney (R-UT) tore into Tuberville for hours, insulting his integrity and accusing him of betraying his country to the Chinese and Russians.
The Pentagon doesn’t seem to actually share these fears (though they profess to). If the Pentagon honestly believed Tuberville’s block was incapacitating American defense, they would end the illegal use of taxpayer dollars for abortion. Austin has calculated military readiness is less important than the administration’s pro-abortion political agenda. He might even actually believe this is the case, but it’s notable the military has declined to produce any data over the past year and a half supporting its claims on abortion’s necessity for military readiness.
It’s possible Tuberville’s Republican antagonists don’t even believe Tuberville is putting the country at risk — at least enough to do the work. One senator cannot truly hold up 400 promotions; he can simply object to expediting their nominations, forcing Democrats to bring the issue to the floor and vote on it. They don’t want to do this. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) Senate rarely holds votes on Mondays, works Tuesdays and Wednesdays, then takes off Thursday afternoon. That’s little more than a two-day workweek. Voting through these nominees takes about two hours, but neither Republicans nor Democrats want to do all that, so instead they attack the man making them work (or forcing the Pentagon to relent).
This gets to a more central problem. Republican politicians love to make excuses and tell their voters they can’t do anything without the majority, or without a bigger majority, or sometimes even with a big majority (if it’s an election year, as it so often is). More than anything, Tuberville’s fight blows a hole in that useful myth, illustrating the power a single senator has to make an impact when they truly want to. He’s not the first to do so; former Sens. Jim DeMint and Jesse Helms were notoriously effective at getting their way, no matter what Washington, D.C., wanted. Few politicians possess the bravery to man those lonely posts, however. It is an unpopular thing in Washington.
And you make powerful enemies when you take a stand. There’s no glory in this fight, on this earth at least. Instead, men like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will send five senators (who aren’t up for reelection next year) to publicly attack you.
Sometimes, even your allies will betray you. One of the five pro-life groups Tuberville’s staff were working with, for example, leaked an email to Republican leadership in which Tuberville’s communications director asked the pro-life groups to threaten primaries against any Republicans who voted to change the rules to stop Tuberville’s hold without either holding votes or winning on the issue. The email was used to berate and embarrass the senator. All of the groups on the email except for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America denied leaking the email.
For their part, SBA hasn’t so much as stated their support for the Alabama senator’s fight (on what is purportedly their top issue). Far from it, the man they chose to lead their federal efforts against abortion, Lindsey Graham, was one of the Republicans out there attacking Tuberville. After the email brouhaha, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) called for Tuberville to fire his communications director. Daines was the first chairman of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus. These pass for allies in Washington.
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But this is how Washington, D.C., works. It’s ugly. Your own team will come for you, and your friends are few, and if you stand on abortion or other unpopular topics, like border security, you don’t get a cozy board position when it’s all over. There’s little reward for doing what Republican voters elected you to do. That’s what makes Tuberville’s stance so courageous.
This week, Tuberville’s own party is going to try to push through a temporary rule change that will derail his stays and allow the Pentagon to go on its merry way using taxpayer dollars for abortion. He’s stood strong, but if just nine Republicans side against him on the rule change, he’ll be defeated. But these men and women don’t like it when people know how Washington works. They’d rather cut ads about draining the swamp and then hop right back in that warm, swampy water. They can’t stand to be exposed, however. Calling them out might be pro-lifers’ best hope to support Tommy Tuberville, the loneliest man in Washington.