Dumbest Senator of the Year: Tommy Tuberville

3 years ago by MicroWave to c/politics

The Republican senator from Alabama spent 2023 turning himself into one of the most hated men in Washington—even by members of his own party.

Senator Tommy Tuberville’s nearly yearlong protest against the Department of Defense’s abortion policy brings to mind an old Chinese proverb that translates to, “He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.” It means that when you take on something risky—or in this case, downright stupid—it’s easier to keep going than to face the consequences of trying to stop.

For nine months, Tuberville single-handedly blocked more than 450 military promotions, throwing the entire U.S. military into disarray. According to the Alabama Republican, this was the best way to protest the department’s policy of reimbursing service members who have to travel out of their state of deployment for an abortion.

Tuberville partially relented on December 5, when he agreed to allow most of those promotions to go forward with the exception of four-star generals. He then dropped those remaining holds this week, and the Senate promptly confirmed 11 nominees to that position.

After all those months of protesting, Tuberville accomplished … nothing. The Defense Department’s abortion policy is still in place. The only difference is that now, all of the department leadership and pretty much every other senator is angry with him.

MicroWave 114 points 3 years ago

path: 0 6173151, hotness: undefined, score: 114, children: 13

MotoAsh 33 points 3 years ago

path: 0 6173151 6173826, hotness: undefined, score: 33, children: 7

tygerprints 22 points 3 years ago

He's a liar, a cheat, a blackmailer, and a woman hater. Sounds like a perfect congressman, if you ask me.

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174188, hotness: undefined, score: 22, children: 3

ares35 10 points 3 years ago

damn near qualified to be his party's candidate for president.

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174188 6175786, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 0

stevehobbes 3 points 3 years ago

republican

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174188 6182108, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 1

tygerprints 3 points 3 years ago

You're right I should amend that. He sounds like the perfect republican to me.

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174188 6182108 6192786, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0

Davel23 15 points 3 years ago

If anything, being a liar is almost a requirement to be a Republican these days.

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174486, hotness: undefined, score: 15, children: 2

Blooper 2 points 3 years ago

Almost?

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174486 6193194, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

Davel23 2 points 3 years ago

I actually debated editing that out of the comment several times, but I ultimately decided to leave it as-is.

path: 0 6173151 6173826 6174486 6193194 6193763, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

pelespirit 11 points 3 years ago

and he has lived in Florida, not Alabama, for nearly two decades

Illegal, yeah?

path: 0 6173151 6174523, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 0

Drusas 3 points 3 years ago

If he's been living in Florida, doesn't that make him ineligible for the position he holds?

Edit: Apparently US Congress representatives only need to live in the state they represent at the time they are elected. Crazy.

https://theconversation.com/...

path: 0 6173151 6183670, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 3

stolid_agnostic 2 points 3 years ago

It may be easy to forget that Hillary Clinton was a NY senator for a couple terms. She's from Alabama.

path: 0 6173151 6183670 6194539, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 2

fpslem 2 points 3 years ago

And she moved to NY just before the election, IIRC.

path: 0 6173151 6183670 6194539 6194635, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

stolid_agnostic 1 point 3 years ago

It was a mini scandal that kinda nobody actually cared about in the end.

path: 0 6173151 6183670 6194539 6194635 6195061, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

ChunkMcHorkle 64 points 3 years ago

deleted by creator

path: 0 6177723, hotness: undefined, score: 64, children: 0

MotoAsh 40 points 3 years ago

path: 0 6173874, hotness: undefined, score: 40, children: 2

AnneBonny 7 points 3 years ago

I think Menendez represents some serious competition for that title:

Sen. Bob Menendez’s lawyers push to delay federal bribery trial until after NJ primary over ‘complexity of case’

path: 0 6173874 6175323, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 1

meco03211 7 points 3 years ago

Should be treated like Trump. If there actually is a lot to manage due to complexity, it should be given an honest evaluation and possibly postponement. If it's just a shitty play to keep a guilty verdict from coming out until after the election (in this case a primary), fuck him.

path: 0 6173874 6175323 6175453, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0

chakan2 39 points 3 years ago

As Brynn Tannehill wrote for The New Republic in September, “This is a naked power play, whose end goal, I suspect, is to fill every senior military position simultaneously with Trump loyalists and sycophants if [Donald] Trump wins reelection in 2024.”

Jesus...that's a brilliant take and one I never considered. It worked for the Judicial branch, now they're going to try it on the Military.

path: 0 6175069, hotness: undefined, score: 39, children: 7

prole 36 points 3 years ago

It's all part of Project 2025. People should be terrified of the Republican party.

path: 0 6175069 6175572, hotness: undefined, score: 36, children: 3

Telorand 21 points 3 years ago

And the people footing their bills. Because they don't go away even if Republicans do.

path: 0 6175069 6175572 6176065, hotness: undefined, score: 21, children: 2

Zipitydew 7 points 3 years ago

The Mercers, Kochs, Larry Ellison, Peter Thiel and others should be terrified to go out in public.

path: 0 6175069 6175572 6176065 6178356, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 1

Telorand 4 points 3 years ago

They should, but they have bodyguards, private islands, and floating yacht-cities. I don't think they have to worry about ever even seeing a poor person.

path: 0 6175069 6175572 6176065 6178356 6178697, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 0

winterayars 2 points 3 years ago

It worked for the courts.

path: 0 6175069 6180403, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

ersatz 2 points 3 years ago

path: 0 6175069 6175696, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

LifeInMultipleChoice 1 point 3 years ago

path: 0 6175069 6182122, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

PM_Your_Nudes_Please 36 points 3 years ago

The abortion thing was always a red herring. He’s been holding out so he could pack the military’s top brass with Trump loyalists. It’s part of Project 2025, since it will require cooperation from the military to actually be successful.

Just like how republicans stalled on a major SCOTUS appointment during Obama’s term, choosing to wait until Trump was in office. But then refused to wait for Biden to take office, and rammed another appointment through at the end of Trump’s term.

path: 0 6177459, hotness: undefined, score: 36, children: 3

greenskye 10 points 3 years ago

So he failed at that too? Or am I missing something

path: 0 6177459 6178225, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 2

winterayars 2 points 3 years ago

That part appears to have failed.

path: 0 6177459 6178225 6180488, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

stolid_agnostic 1 point 3 years ago

He did it too early, perhaps, thinking that he could hold out for the entire presidential term. He'd have gotten away with it had he waited until Biden's second or third year.

path: 0 6177459 6178225 6194543, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

Red_October 17 points 3 years ago

Can someone honestly explain how he isn't facing Espionage charges? I mean it seems like he's pretty blatantly sabotaging the function of the entire military. Would these exact same actions be allowed if it were discovered China had been encouraging him to continue instead of out of protest?

path: 0 6174089, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 8

TimeSquirrel 6 points 3 years ago

I assume (in theory) because his actions are not his own, but are the actions that his constituency wants him to take, so the responsibility lies with the mouth breathers that elected him. And you can't charge a group of citizens for voting a certain way.

Everything he is doing, he is doing within the legal framework of our system, as fucked as it is. It's just that the framework has never been tested and pushed like this. People used to be mature and reasonable, and that USED to be enough to keep things flowing. Now they're examining every loophole in the book to try to get their way any way they can.

path: 0 6174089 6174371, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0

Fal 2 points 3 years ago

Representatives are immune from legal consequences for actions of this type that they take on the congress floor, speech and debate clause.

path: 0 6174089 6174880, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

Rivalarrival 1 point 3 years ago

He's not doing anything that he isn't constitutionally permitted to do. The constitution requires the president to get the Senate's advice and consent on these appointments. He can't be charged for refusing to grant his consent.

What he is doing is just a form of filibuster. The rest of the Senate can stop him if they want. They just don't want to, because the minority would have to support a majority request to invoke cloture.

The minority party always plays these stupid games in the Senate, no matter which party that is.

path: 0 6174089 6191803, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 2

stolid_agnostic 1 point 3 years ago

The rest of the Senate can stop him if they want. They just don’t want to

The moment they do this, the filibuster goes away. Conservatives would rather burn the country than lose the only bargaining chip they own.

path: 0 6174089 6191803 6194553, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1

Rivalarrival 1 point 3 years ago

Nah, the other way. Keep the filibuster, and invoke cloture. If 60 senators want those promotions to go through, they will go through. It's party unity that would suffer.

path: 0 6174089 6191803 6194553 6202200, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

stolid_agnostic 1 point 3 years ago

Espionage will have a very specific definition that he most certainly doesn't fit. Maybe giving aid to an enemy could be an easier argument.

path: 0 6174089 6194550, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

givesomefucks 0 points 3 years ago

Republicans would never allow that precedent.

And moderate Dems don't like accountability either, so they're not vocal about it.

Like most issues, there just aren't enough progressives yet to fix it.

path: 0 6174089 6174129, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 1

stolid_agnostic 1 point 3 years ago

I've learned that people in the ML instance have a "both sides" view of both liberals and conservatives and hate them equally, which is why you got voted down.

path: 0 6174089 6174129 6194568, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

Boddhisatva 15 points 3 years ago

path: 0 6173031, hotness: undefined, score: 15, children: 0

charonn0 11 points 3 years ago

I sincerely hope that the FBI is taking a very, very, very close look at this traitor's effort to render aid and comfort to America's enemies.

path: 0 6174468, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 0

tygerprints 9 points 3 years ago

Blocking military promotions just because his pink panties are in a twist about the military's stance on abortions is basically a kind of blackmail. And just another example of the hate-filled kind of idiotic excrementalism that makes up the bulk of the GOP today.

path: 0 6174174, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 1

pelespirit 8 points 3 years ago

the military’s stance on abortions

That's a deflecting issue, he was trying to set it up so trump can put his own people in the military.

path: 0 6174174 6174615, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 0

DarkGamer 7 points 3 years ago

With a name like that he'd be better suited to be a potato farmer, somewhere remote where he can't fuck with servicemembers lives and leave America less safe.

path: 0 6173290, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 5

SinningStromgald 7 points 3 years ago

Bottom of Mariana Trench seems like a good place for him.

path: 0 6173290 6174176, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 1

chaogomu 2 points 3 years ago

I'm against the dumping of garbage into the Mariana Trench, there are perfectly find landfills here in the US that he could live in.

I'm sure someone in Alabama will donate a lightly used meth trailer for him to live in.

path: 0 6173290 6174176 6174679, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

Jaysyn 2 points 3 years ago

Don't insult farmers like that. Farmers are useful. Tuberville has been a parasite his entire adult life.

path: 0 6173290 6174427, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

DarkGamer 0 points 3 years ago

No insult intended, farmers can't do the amount of national harm Tuberville has caused as a representative.

path: 0 6173290 6174427 6176804, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0

ThePantser 2 points 3 years ago

Mr. Potato Town

path: 0 6173290 6173724, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

TheDeepState 7 points 3 years ago

Auburn sucks!

path: 0 6176801, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0

semi_sentient 3 points 3 years ago

What a miserable SOB

path: 0 6174606, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0

YeetPics 3 points 3 years ago

Can we do something useful with this sack of shit? Turn him into Elmer's glue or render his lard into soap to help wash up around DC.. something??

path: 0 6179275, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0

frezik 1 point 3 years ago

He had a lot of competition and still managed to stand out.

path: 0 6198005, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

politics

@lemmy.world

login for more options

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

go to feed...

politics

@lemmy.world

login for more options

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

go to feed...