The Senate seems to be moving closer and closer to overriding Tommy Tuberville's jihad against military promotions. So Tuberville is throwing in the towel before that happens:
New: Tuberville announces he will drop his holds on all military officer noms except 4-star generals
— Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) December 5, 2023
The vast majority of promotions are at the lower ranks of flag officers, so this means there are only 11 holds left. Will Senate Republicans help break a filibuster to get just those promotions through? Stay tuned.
I'm still convinced this is a scheme to allow Fat Donnie to install puppets if he regains power.
Hence, the continued hold on 4-star generals.
Disguising a power play as a stand on principle-- it does sound plausible at that. But then Tuberville's inexperience on the job is showing. If he started his blockade next spring or summer instead of last spring, it would all get lost amid election coverage and trump would have a chance to install a major chunk of loyal officers in one fell swoop right at the start of a term. On second thought it could still happen that way, so maybe this experience has been the pre-game practice.
Those 11 holds can be dealt with one at a time in the usual way. Tuberville was able to block batch processing of the various promotions and postings because that requires unanimous consent, and there are too many of them to deal with one at a time.
Ahh, the "you can't fire me, I quit" tactic.
I'm curious about the timing. Seems like Tuperville loves his 15 minutes of fame, and didn't care about pressure from either party. The the GOP is generally supportive of anyone sabotaging the administration . . . Then suddenly he caves.
Wondering what they (finally) got on him
This makes it seem like all Tuberville's holds have been lifted: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/politics/army-generals-promotion-ceremony-tuberville-hold/index.html