Last week, while I was on vacation, Erick Erickson posted with regard to Senator Tuberville (R-AL) and his hold on military promotions that is best interpreted as Erickson simply falling apart. It starts with the title:
Senator Tuberville’s Strong Stand
The good Senator, unfortunately for Erickson, has betrayed very little understanding of history or the role of the Senate. For example, he believes his dad went to Europe in WW II to fight the “socialists.” He has a number of other such blunders to his credit. The end result is that he appears to be little more than a clown. It doesn’t help that he lives in Florida but represents Alabama, which certainly sounds illegal.
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) refuses to give his consent for the United States Senate to advance hundreds of military promotions. His objection stems from the Biden Administration changing military policy to pay for abortion related travel. Prior to the end of Roe v. Wade, the government would not cover those costs. Now, President Biden is using the military to advance an aggressive abortion agenda. Senator Tuberville is having none of it.
And that would be because … there was no need to travel to leave a jurisdiction forbidding abortion, because jurisdictions could not make such laws. I don’t doubt there was some travel to reach a doctor competent in the life-saving procedure, but I have no idea what those numbers might be – and that would be little more than sleight-of-hand if Erickson were to cite them.
In response, much of the mainstream media, the Democrats, military leadership, and even some Republicans and conservative pundits are savaging Senator Tuberville. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, on CNN, said, “For someone who’s born in a communist country, I would have never imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communist and other autocratic regimes around the world. This is having a real negative impact and will continue to have a real negative impact on our combat readiness. And that’s what the American people truly need to understand.” Even some military leaders have been outspoken, not fully appreciating the concept of civilian control of the military.
This is what it must seem like to try to swallow Erickson’s piece, at least by thinking people.
And the fact that a number of Republican Senators find Senator Tuberville’s actions embarrassing is an important detail. Erickson’s trying to portray this as some terrible Democratic plot, but he’s swimming against a strong current here: Republicans who recognize that Tuberville is attacking both the military and the traditions of an American Senate that has other important matters to pursue.
And that brings up a detail omitted, insofar as I can tell, by Erickson: the act of bringing up each officer for debate of their promotion will delay Senate business by several days for each officer. There’s a good reason the whole bunch are usually promoted as a group: because it’s more efficient.
And that leads to another question: is it wise for the Senate to even try to debate the merits of an officer’s promotion? What do they know of the individual merits of each officer?
Doesn’t this risk politicizing the military?
But all this Erickson omits. Instead, this is his opportunity to, once again, smear the main stream media in order to keep his flock of conservatives together:
… the American press corps’ unwillingness to accurately report the story. Every major press outlet has take the Democrats’ party line and advanced it. They have not acknowledged the promotions could happen with votes. They seem to insist unanimous consent is the only way forward.
And … no. Just a lie. Every time I run across this story, whether it be WaPo or MSNBC’s Steve Benen, it’s made clear that individual votes could take place.
But better yet is the first part of the above paragraph:
But abortion politics reigns supreme for the Democrats. They cannot get Senator Tuberville to yield and the Democrats are not interested in advancing military nominations more than the abortion agenda. More alarming than the Democrats’ abortion politics is the American press corps’ unwillingness to accurately report the story.
When bulging eyes warp your perspective.
I actually hooted with laughter. Abortion politics reigns supreme for the Democrats? Dude, haven’t you been paying attention? The Republicans have been fixated on abortion for literally decades! Have you no shame? You’re one of many who smeared Democrats with the epithet baby-killers!
And that fixation eventually lead to Dobbs, which then lead to Republicans placing various serious restrictions on a life saving procedure, imperiling women’s lives, all put in place by fourth and fifth rate politicians who are entirely so full of themselves that they’ll explode from an overpressure of arrogance someday. The Democrats’ fixation is a result of the foolishness of Republicans who don’t understand that Americans do not take kindly to their lives being put in danger by a pack of yahoos.
I’m simply amazed that Erickson wrote that.
There you go. It’s strictly a rallying piece because of Erickson’s fixation on abortion. It’s his bad luck that one of the worst Senators is involved. It forces him into a land of ludicrous irony that must have turned him purple.
