Balloon Juice

For months, many of the military officers directly impacted by Tuberville’s holds declined to speak out, for fear any comments would be seen as political. But as the pressures on their lives and the lives of the officers serving under them increased, they began to speak about how not being able to resettle their families in new communities was impacting not only them, but their military kids and spouses.

They talked about how some of their most talented junior officers were going to get out of the military because of the instability they saw around them, and they talked about how having to perform multiple roles because of so many vacancies was putting enormous additional stress on an already overworked military community.

The issue came to a head when U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith suffered a heart attack in October, just two days after he’d talked about the stress of the holds at a military conference…

In the end, Schumer said Tuberville ended up failing to get anything that he wanted and held it out as a warning to others who might attempt similar efforts in the future to undo policies they oppose.

“It’s a risky strategy that will not succeed,” Schumer said. “I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

The Democrats, fortunately, are not in a forgiving mood:

Tuberville: It was pretty much a draw. They didn’t get what they wanted. We didn’t get what I wanted. pic.twitter.com/jTj1KHp6ha

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 5, 2023

For 10 months, Senator Tuberville held our servicemembers and national security hostage to restrict reproductive freedom.⁰
Today, he backed down. But the impact on our military won't be forgotten.

Republicans have shown they're willing to risk everything to ban abortion. https://t.co/AF59QxdMEu

— Katherine Clark (@WhipKClark) December 5, 2023

For almost a year, Sen. Tuberville has recklessly delayed confirmations of hundreds of U.S. military personnel.

The Senate made headway today in confirming the bulk of Tuberville's stalled noms, but I will continue to push for those remaining—some 4-star noms—to be approved.

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) December 5, 2023

Tuberville's reckless holds on military promotions hurt military families & national security—all because of his obsession with restricting abortion for servicemembers.
Glad to see him finally stand down on most of his destructive holds, but he’s still blocking 4-star promotions. pic.twitter.com/RXAFUwRnHl

— Congressman Chris Deluzio (@RepDeluzio) December 5, 2023

After months of jeopardizing our national security, Sen. Tuberville today dropped many of his holds on military promotions. I’m glad hundreds of our nation’s finest military leaders will finally receive the promotions they’ve earned. Here’s my full statement: pic.twitter.com/PMtXqXvCUz

— Senator Jack Reed (@SenJackReed) December 5, 2023

I endorse this message:

As long as we can all agree that Tommy Tuberville is a worthless and bigoted pos who should still be publicly shamed forever + 4.5 days for putting our military in this situation then maybe, just possibly, there is some hope for our future as a nation. pic.twitter.com/LbhCbXmNeS

— Renee (@PettyLupone) December 5, 2023