Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is about to play some hardball in the Senate, in an effort to break the logjam on promotions in the military which has been thrown up by one recalcitrant senator, Tommy Tuberville. The Alabama Republican has thrown what can only be described as a hissy fit over the fact that the military respects the rights of the women who serve this country. Tuberville is the lone senator objecting to each and every Pentagon promotion that must be Senate-approved (as all the higher ranks are) until he can somehow force the military to deny women their reproductive rights. This has not just annoyed the military and Democratic senators, it is also not exactly supported by Tuberville's own party (who used to champion themselves as being "strong on the military"). And it has already affected the military readiness of this country, which is a dangerous thing. Schumer and other Democrats (including President Biden) have been denouncing Tuberville's military promotions boycott, but now Schumer appears ready to try a new tactic: give Tuberville an up-or-down floor vote on the issue to shut him up.

The bone of contention for Tuberville is that the military reacted to the Supreme Court tossing out Roe v. Wade by instituting a policy that not only allowed serving women paid time off to have an abortion (if they decided to have one), but also covered their travel costs if they were stationed in states which have all but outlawed the procedure. The women who serve in uniform should have the same rights as any other woman in America, and that includes the right to freely travel to other states for their medical needs, if necessary. Without such an official policy, though, a woman servicemember may have had to choose to go AWOL in order to obtain an abortion, or possibly not been able to afford the travel costs to obtain one. This would hurt military readiness and recruitment, because who wants to work for an institution that punishes you for exercising your rights as an American?

Tuberville wants the Pentagon to change their policy. So he decided to punish them by holding up military promotions, which (except in rare contentious cases) are usually no more than a pro forma affair in the Senate. They usually pass with a voice vote of "unanimous consent" -- but that can only happen if the senators actually are unanimous. One objection can force the Senate into extended parliamentary procedures for each and every promotion (which would take up an inordinate amount of time). Tuberville's lone action has held up hundreds of promotions already. This is already affecting the upper ranks of the military, as the Marine Corps now -- for the first time in history -- is being run by an interim leader rather than one fully approved by the Senate.

Tuberville's stunt is annoying a lot of people. He has been feeling pressure from his own leadership to end it, in fact. And Tuberville has already somewhat backtracked on what he is holding out for -- initially it was that the Pentagon realize the errors of its ways and rescind the abortion travel policy on its own, but now it appears Tuberville might be satisfied with a floor vote on an amendment to force the Pentagon to overturn the policy.

So that's what Schumer now appears to be offering him: a floor vote on banning the practice. And not just any floor vote, but one that only requires a simple majority to pass. Tuberville could get his new Pentagon policy (since it can be assumed the Republican House would agree to such a restriction) passed with the Defense Department funding bill (the "National Defense Authorization Act") that Congress is now debating. If, of course, he can get 51 senators to vote for it.

Schumer seems pretty confident Tuberville won't be able to do so, which means Schumer has done a whip count within his own caucus and determined that he can count on at least 50 votes against Tuberville's idea. To put it another way, Schumer can afford to lose one vote (or have one Democratic senator not be present) and still know that Tuberville's amendment would fail to pass, and he's already sure he's got those 50 votes.

The interesting thing about the Politico article I read on this story is that Schumer is also not ruling out a tactic that Harry Reid used to use to great effect: threatening the senators' lavish vacation schedule:

The majority leader also didn't rule out keeping the Senate in session into August to begin grinding through those promotions the long way. Lawmakers in both parties are antsy to find a solution to the blockade, which is prompting GOP discord and Democratic warnings about hurting national security. The chamber is scheduled to leave late next week for a five-week break.

"In terms of staying [through August], our first job is to pass NDAA and then we'll see what happens and go from there," [Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer said.

Allow me to translate this into the message Schumer is really sending his colleagues: "You want your five weeks off in the sun? Well, sorry, but one Republican is forcing us to take hours and hours and hours of the Senate's time to ensure that America has a strong military. Since Democrats put having a strong military above personal gratification, we will all be staying put through August to work through the backlog of Pentagon promotions, one by one. We can leave for our August break when every single one of them is complete and not before." This is Senate hardball, Harry-Reid-style, and can indeed move mountains when applied correctly.

Tommy Tuberville is a rather despicable character, it bears mentioning. He's struggled with condemning white nationalism and white supremacy, for instance -- preferring to call such maligned individuals "Americans," instead of denouncing their racist beliefs. Today the Washington Post revealed that Tuberville was quite possibly lying through his teeth when he made a campaign pledge to donate "every dime" of his salary as a senator to military veterans in his home state. For the 2.5 years that he has served in the Senate, this would work out to $437,000 so far. There is no record of Tuberville giving this amount (or any amount) to his favorite charity, the Tommy Tuberville Foundation -- or to any other charity which supports Alabama veterans. Perhaps he'll make good on his promise at some future date, but for now this shows his actual contempt for the troops he campaigned on supporting.

So does his blanket hold on Pentagon promotions, for that matter. If Chuck Schumer goes through with his promise to give Tuberville a floor vote, then perhaps Tuberville will accept it as an acceptable off-ramp from his hissy fit. Or perhaps he'll have to bear the brunt of complaints and pressure from his fellow Republican senators, as they all swelter through a D.C. August, holding vote after vote after vote in the long and draw-out fashion Tuberville is forcing upon the Senate. Either way, it appears that Schumer is now determined to break the Tuberville logjam in one fashion or another.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant