Sullivan gives himself some of the credit for Tuberville's surrender on military promotions
Sen. Dan Sullivan gives himself some of the credit for getting Alabama Sen. Tommy “Coach” Tuberville to drop his obstruction of hundreds of military promotions, releasing a statement in which Sullivan didn’t mention the guy who created the mess.
“I’ve been working this issue for months," said Sullivan, who said he had an “intense focus” on ending the blockade. Sullivan said he made a commitment to get this fixed weeks ago and “I keep my commitments.”
Tuberville surrendered Tuesday without getting what he wanted, a change in Pentagon policy on access to abortion services. He had held up hundreds of promotions of military members and insisted he would never give up until he did.
Sullivan tried to blur the picture of what Tuberville did.
“Going forward Democrats and Republicans should commit to not using blanket holds on military officers again. Our brave troops and their families deserve nothing less,” said Sullivan.
What Sullivan didn’t say is that he defended Tuberville for months in blocking military promotions.
Sullivan went on Meet the Press in July and said Tuberville was entirely within his rights to do what he was doing, blocking hundreds of promotions under an old Senate rule.
At that time Sullivan refused to say that Tuberville was damaging national security and readiness. The real problem was Biden and the Democrats, Sullivan told Chuck Todd.
“The president, a lot of my Democratic colleagues are talking about this as a big national security issue,” Sullivan said of Tuberville’s hold.
“We should be clear. The biggest national security issue from my perspective Chuck is the Biden administration is continuing to put forward defense budget cuts,” according to Sullivan.
(Biden proposed a defense increase of $26 billion, $6.9 billion after adjusting for inflation, the Congressional Research Service said.)
“Now to Senator Tuberville, as you know, every senator has the right to place holds on nominees on an issue of policy importance,” Sullivan told the TV audience. “I certainly have done this myself.”
Sullivan said in July that the administration and Senate Democrats should compromise with the Alabama senator.
In September, Sullivan repeated his call for others to compromise with Tuberville.
It wasn’t until the start of November that Sullivan and other GOP senators took a more sensible position and publicly complained about Tuberville’s stunt. It took another month before the coach admitted defeat.
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