Yeah - they talk about how time consuming individual votes would be, but it takes even longer if they never start!
They’re pretty busy with other things such as the budget.
IMO part of the rationale is that if the dems brute force the top brass through then it takes the pressure of the GOP - with the stakes considerably lower there’s less of a chance to get the GOP to release the holds.
Yeah - they were pretty busy all last month! ;). And I’m not sure why each nomination has to be all that time-consuming…
I was wondering whether Congress is now looking at these perpetually threatened shutdowns as their now standard manner for handling everything. Instead of addressing individual issues responsibly and separately, they just wait until the next self-imposed “final hour”, and pass a whole bunch of stuff together.
I wonder if they ever read the Tennyson poem in which the sailors of a ship in battle remained inactive and went down with their ship because of how much they hated the captain.
The highest positions are what is getting the press but I think that’s the least important part of this. If a handful of positions have a general with “acting” in front of his position it’s not a big deal. What’s more important to the smooth running of the military are the thousands of O-4 to O-6 promotions that are held up.
Those promotions are not being held up, fortunately.
Mike Lee of Utah has joined Tuberville by suggesting that the GOP defund the Secretary of Defense and/or the Pentagon. According to the article, he criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for “funding abortion travel.” There’s no chance it would work, but it’s a lot of sound and fury that stops more substantive work being done.
As for the senator’s contention that someone should “get somebody else to do the job” of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, there’s already a qualified nominee in place who has broad support. Everyone is simply waiting for Tuberville to get out of the way.
If I were in charge of the Senate, I’d be half-tempted to take this quote as Tuberville formally withdrawing his holds, and publicly and ostentatiously thank him for finally coming to his senses. Then strategically ignore him when he tries to backpedal, and pass this shit.
Not a huge fan of our level of defense spending, so maybe this would be enough to make this libby switch teams?
So they clearly aren’t in favor of fiscal conservatism. If they aren’t for a strong defense, exactly what DO the Rs stand for again? 
Why does Tommy Tuberville hate The Star-Spangled Banner? And My Country, ‘Tis of Thee? And The Marines’ Hymn? And …
Since just about all popular songs are poetry set to music, obviously Tommy should ban all non-instrumental music from the military to keep our troops unsullied by poetic influences and fit to fight. I’m sure the troops will thank him for it.
Reading is “woke” and poems are for lefties.
Looks like the Senate may be moving forward 1 at a time.
So in the US system, every Senator has a veto on all government policies, in addition to the power of a minority of 31 to block all legislation.
Parliamentarianism is looking better and better.
I must agree. I’ve thought parliamentarianism is a better system for a while than what we have down here. The Senate in particular has some really stupid ass rules with nothing to do with the Constitution and this is one of them.
@Northern_Piper It’s a specific situation that gives him the ability to do this. It’s not that he can block policy. It’s that he can override the Senate’s unanimous consent to suspend the rules. And one of those rules is that they have to be able to consider each appointment separately.
And, no, I don’t know why they don’t use a simple majority to just rewrite the rules, which they have the power to do. What are they concerned will happen if they do allow them to vote on more than one at a time?
(Note that voting one at a time means up to two hours to debate each one. They need unanimous support to suspend that rule in a particular case.)
The Senate cannot rewrite the rules with a simple majority. However, it only requires a majority to appeal the ruling of the chair on a point of order, which both is and isn’t the same thing. It’s . . . complicated.
So, is there no legislative or executive action conceivable to punish Tuberville and the state of Alabama until they see the error of their ways? LBJ would not have let a lone Senator get away with shit like this without consequences.
LBJ would have jawboned him to death, sure. I don’t know that he had any more power 55 years ago, other than his personal persuasiveness and relationships, than Biden has. The problem now is political, not structural. Ideology now trumps everything, including economic interests. If Tuberville’s actions are guaranteed to get him re-elected, which they probably are, there isn’t much anyone can do about it.