Tommy Tuberville is Tipping His Hand
The former football coach's blockade of military promotions shows what he really thinks of the military.
Dear readers,
Calder’s out of the country this week on a much-deserved vacation, so you’re stuck with me for now. To make the most of my brief time out from under Calder’s censorious thumb, I considered writing a 12,000-word diagnosis (with charts and graphs) of the various ills plaguing the New York Mets, but I decided to spare you (and him). Instead, I figured it was a good moment to revisit one of Southpaw’s favorite characters — Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville — who has been making quite a nuisance of himself on Capitol Hill recently. Here we go, folks.
-Ian
You may remember Tommy Tuberville as the former head coach of the University of Alabama football team, or you may remember him as the incoming senator from Alabama who misidentified the three branches of government and claimed that World War II was fought against socialism. But if you’re looking for some punchy new identifiers to attach to the senior senator from Alabama — well, the past few weeks have given you plenty of material to work with.
Here’s the rundown: Earlier this month, Tuberville appeared on Kaitlan Collins’s show on CNN to discuss his ongoing blockade of all military appointments (more on that later on). During the interview, Collins pressed Tuberville on an earlier comment he had made on a local radio show suggesting that Democrats’ efforts to boot white nationalists from the military were weakening its operational readiness. (When subsequently asked whether he believed that white nationalists belonged in the military, Tuberville responded: “I call the Americans.”)
In response to Collins’s questions, Tuberville doubled down on his earlier comments, claiming that “white nationalist” is “just a cover word for the Democrats to use to make people mad.” He insisted that he believed that there was no place for racism in the armed forced, but when Collins pointed out that a white nationalist is by definition a racist, Tuberville shot back: “Well, that’s some people’s opinion.”
Predictably, Tuberville’s comments inspired heated blowback on the Hill from Democrats and Republicans alike, and after a few days of awkward back-and-forth, Tuberville finally conceded that yes, white nationalists are racist, and no, they should not be allowed to serve in the military. The whole exchange was bizarre and embarrassing, not least because it certainly made it seem like Tuberville just didn’t know what “white nationalist” meant, aside from a nationalist who happens to be white.
But the bigger controversy surrounding Tuberville stems from the issue that landed him on CNN in the first place. For the past few weeks, Tuberville has been preventing all military promotions and appointments from passing through the Senate, creating a backlog of nearly 300 promotions and leaving the U.S. Marine Corps without a commandant for the first time in its history. (Normally the Senate approves these promotions unanimously and largely as a formality, but a single member can block the process if they choose to.) The nominal purpose of Tuberville’s blockade is to pressure the Pentagon to repeal its policy of providing paid leave to service members who travel to receive an abortion, a rule that Tuberville claims violates the ban on government-funded abortions. (House Republicans included an amendment repealing the policy in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, but the amendment is unlikely to make it into the final version of the bill.)
Tuberville’s hold is stirring up lots of controversy in Washington, but it’s also revealing what conservatives like Tuberville actually mean when they say that they “support the military.” Recall that back in 2020, when Tuberville was running for Senate, his campaign released an ad attacking Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the National Anthem to protest racism and police brutality. Unlike Kaepernick, the ad claimed, Tuberville would “protect veterans” and “defend our values,” tapping into the common conservative critique that players who kneel during the anthem disrespect law enforcement and the military. (They don’t.)
This raises a fair question: Now that Tuberville’s in office, how does he protect and defend the U.S. military? The answer, it seems, is by throwing a massive political wrench into its gears. The blockade is a massive headache for lawmakers, but it’s an even bigger headache for the 300 military personnel who are stuck in bureaucratic limbo, unable to relocate their families, enroll their children in new schools, or carry out their professional duties until Tuberville relents. And unlike efforts to kick white nationalists out of the military, Tuberville’s blockade actually does hurt the military’s operational readiness and imperil its national security.
Tuberville’s priorities here are pretty clear: he only cares about the military insofar as he’s able to use it as a weapon in his culture war battles — either as a cudgel to keep Black people in line, or as a bargaining chip to deprive women of their reproductive rights. We’d say that he’s using the military as a political football, but when it comes to Tuberville, that feels a little too on the nose.
RODNEY’S ROUNDUP
Do you want to read about . . .
. . . the state of women’s sports at the start of the World Cup? “The ever-evolving debate over women playing sports,” by Zachary Wolfe for CNN (July 20, 2023).
. . . a big fine for the NFL’s worst (former) owner? “N.F.L. Fines Snyder $60 Million for Sexual Harassment and Withholding Revenue,” by Ken Belson and Jenny Vrentas in The New York Times (July 20, 2023).
. . . the legal fights over Arizona’s transgender athlete ban? “Federal judge blocks Arizona law banning transgender athletes from girls' sports teams,” by the AP (July 20, 2023).