Over the five-plus years I’ve been writing my missives for Colorado Politics, I’ve mentioned on many occasions how fortunate I feel to have had the opportunity to serve more than 25 years of active military duty as a commissioned officer of the United States. The years flew by, and as I think back on the last day I wore a uniform, I cannot believe it was 17 years ago.

And over those years, I’ve been asked, from time to time, what it means to be a “commissioned” officer in the U.S. It is a broader term than you might suspect, in that, in addition to the military side of things, there are commissioned officers found elsewhere in government service. The U.S. Public Health service, for example, has commissioned officers. They wear military uniforms and are structured along military-like lines. Ever wonder why the Surgeon General of the United States is a general? Because he or she is a commissioned U.S. officer in command of a group of more than 6,000 commissioned officers in the USPHS.

So, what makes you “commissioned?” Well, it is a long administrative process, and part of that process is the U.S. Senate voting to appoint an individual to a particular rank and role. In my own case, for example, back when I was selected for promotion to Lt. Colonel, my name was on a list, with hundreds of other majors selected for promotion, that was submitted to the Senate for advice and consent, as per the Constitution. The Senate technically had to vote on whether we should be promoted, and when they passed our names in a routine vote, we were rendered promotable. Senate action is mandatory for all promotions, and it has always been, well, routine until a certain highly unqualified guy got elected to the Senate and decided to make some kind of a stand that even his own GOPers disapprove of.

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Which, of course, brings me to the senior senator from Alabama…

Tommy Tuberville was a terrific college football coach. He led the Auburn Tigers to many successful seasons, and back in 2020, he parlayed the name recognition that comes with leading a top football program into the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. And given that it was Alabama, of course the Republican won the seat.

Now, I’m not saying there is a single background that qualifies one to be a senator, but I am saying coaching at the highest level of college sports is not really the best training to take a seat in the nation’s most important elective body.

Tuberville has embarrassed himself on several occasions, most recently when he stated his support for white nationalists. When asked the softball question, “Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?”  Tuberville responded, “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.” His staff tried later to walk back the racism, but that bell can’t be un-rung.

Most recently, Tuberville has returned embarrassingly to national headlines, as reported in Colorado Politics, for his decision to mess with the commissioning process I explored above. You see, as it turns out, due to Senate rules, any one senator can place a hold on any particular piece of legislation that would otherwise reach the Senate floor for a vote.

And Tuberville, in that long tradition of Republicans “supporting” the troops, has decided to put a complete hold on any and all flag officer – generals and admirals – promotions in the U.S. military. We call generals and admirals “flag officers” because they get, you guessed it, flags, with stars on them for their offices as symbols of their important positions.

Yup, Tuberville put the brakes on the normal and routine process by which the military works through retirements, promotions, new assignments and more. He is messing with the very foundation of what it takes to run an elite military. As noted in the story, he is holding up, for example, two highly qualified generals to be promoted from 3-star to 4-star generals and to assume command of the U.S. Space Command and NORAD, both of particular importance here in Colorado.

Why is Tuberville doing this? Is it because he opposes, say, the creation of the Space Force or some other important military doctrine?

No.

Tuberville is outraged the military allows service members to take administrative leave to get a medical procedure that is not available where they are based. Yes, we are talking about abortion.

The military doesn’t pay for abortions (though Tuberville has falsely claimed they do), but the Pentagon does allow service members to take leave for that medical procedure, on their own dime, in states, like Colorado, that have not yet fallen to the extreme agenda of MAGA world. Oh, and solid majorities of Americans continue to support abortion rights, so you know Tuberville isn’t acting on the behalf of most Americans.

Tuberville, perhaps in part because he came to the Senate utterly unprepared by training or education, decided to draw a line in the sand on this issue, an issue that even offends most of his fellow Republican senators. Now six months into his “protest,” he has blocked roughly 250 military promotions, a number the Pentagon warns could reach 650 by the end of the year. Heck, because of his block, the U.S. Marine Corps is now running without a Commandant, the 4-star commander of the Corps. That hasn’t happened for 150 years.

It seems odd a member of the party that claims to be pro-military is taking actions that truly impact and degrade our operational readiness. I’m guessing Tuberville, in his naivete and uninformed GOP bluster, picked flag officer promotions as his target because he thought the military leadership would quickly cave to his demands and he would become some sort of MAGA hero.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Tuberville, no doubt seeing himself wrapped in the flag, is doing actual harm to the U.S. military every day he continues this doomed protest. I say doomed because out of the other 99 senators, exactly zero have come to his defense. Indeed, the GOP leadership has been quite clear they oppose what he is doing.

So, what’s going to happen? At some point, Tuberville will just have to follow the Trump model and declare victory, and to deny he didn’t get what he wanted. The U.S. military makes a poor political plaything.

I’d say shame on him, but I don’t think he is capable of feeling shame. More the pity.

Stay tuned…

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.