{"id":101706,"date":"2020-07-03T08:15:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T12:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=101706"},"modified":"2020-07-02T23:14:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T03:14:16","slug":"senator-duckworth-roils-the-political-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=101706","title":{"rendered":"Senator Duckworth Roils the Political Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Senator Tammy Duckworth<\/p>\n

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D Ill), U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, has been called a \u201csafe\u201d choice for Biden’s Veep spot. Some aren\u2019t convinced that the first-ever Thai American woman elected to Congress is the right pick in a political landscape that has been suddenly altered by the death of George Floyd, though.
\nLet that sink in a minute. I admire her military service and honor her awards for the grievous injuries she received, but am no fan of the politician she has become. Still, it must irk one who is likely the most qualified VP candidate for Biden, to be deemed not “Woke” enough to be seriously considered to run.
\nSo perhaps she’s decided to stir the pot a bit. She intends to block 1,123 military promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper “confirms in writing that he did not, or will not, block the expected and deserved promotion” of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman to Colonel.<\/p>\n

Duckworth to halt military confirmations until she receives assurance Vindman promotion won\u2019t be blocked<\/h3>\n

By Clare Foran, Ted Barrett and Ryan Browne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois announced on Thursday that she is blocking Senate confirmation of 1,123 senior US Armed Forces promotions until she receives assurances that the promotion of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman<\/a>, a key witness in President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry, won’t be blocked.<\/p>\n

Duckworth, a combat veteran who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is seeking written confirmation from Defense Secretary Mark Esper that he has not and will not stop Vindman, a decorated veteran, from being promoted to the rank of Colonel.<\/p>\n

Duckworth’s power play, which her office described as “unprecedented in modern history,” takes advantage of unanimous consent procedures in the Senate that are used to efficiently conduct Senate business. Typically, a large batch of non-controversial military promotions, like the ones Duckworth is holding up, would be passed all at once with just a few words exchanged on the floor between Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and whoever is the presiding officer.<\/p>\n

But instead of granting consent to pass the promotions, Duckworth objected, meaning McConnell would have to go through the time-consuming process of filing motions to overcome what amounts to her filibuster.<\/p>\n

Her move also comes with some risk, as she could be criticized for holding up promotions and pay increases for hundreds of deserving servicemembers over what some will consider a political disagreement with Trump.<\/p>\n

A defense official said that the Department of Defense “received the notification from the senator’s office last night and the secretary is aware.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The National Security Council is chaired by the President. Those on the National Security Council serve at the pleasure of the President, and may be fired for any reason, or none at all. This is political grandstanding by Duckworth, to both keep her name active in the media and to prove her anti-Trump chops to the Democratic National Committee, with the intent of propping up her chances for the VP spot. That this also holds up promotions and pay increases for hundreds of deserving servicemembers over what some will consider a political disagreement with Trump, isn’t on her radar.<\/p>\n

Hat tip to Mason for the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Tammy Duckworth Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D Ill), U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, has … Senator Duckworth Roils the Political Waters<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,225,472,406,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-blue-falcons","category-democrats","category-guest-link","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101711,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101706\/revisions\/101711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}