Kansas City Star. November 7, 2023.
Editorial: Roger Marshall the only no vote to new Navy, Air Force chiefs. Kansas doesn’t know why
Last week, Kansas’ Roger Marshall was the lone Senate vote against confirming new service chiefs for the Navy and Air Force. No Democrats joined him. No Republicans did, either.
The final tally in both cases was 95-1.
Why would Kansas’ junior senator make such a stark and lonely stand? Frankly, we don’t know. Media reports about the confirmation votes mentioned Marshall’s vote, but didn’t explain. He made no proclamations on social media, nor did he issue any press releases. We reached out to his office for comment and heard nothing back.
The senator’s constituents — who include a number of current and retired service members, as well as a substantial number of Kansans who simply want to see the nation’s military function effectively — should demand an answer.
Unless that happens, Kansas voters will be left to guess and speculate.
Let’s start back at the beginning of this story. Marshall’s fellow Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, has become notorious in recent months for his decision to place a “hold” on Senate approval for military promotions of every officer at or above the level of one-star general or its equivalent, a protest against a Pentagon policy that reimburses service members for their travel expenses when they obtain an abortion.
We are dubious about Senate rules that let a single member of the 100-person body so casually grind the business of government to a halt. That’s precisely what happened here: Nearly 400 senior officers have found their careers in limbo because of Tuberville’s hold, placing a strain on military leadership — and American national security — as critical posts go unfilled and the remaining officers are forced to pick up the slack.
Indeed, Marine Gen. Eric Smith, the corps’ commandant and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suffered an apparent heart attack last week. Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, suggested that Tuberville’s hold may have had a hand in Smith’s illness, noting the general “was doing two jobs at once” while waiting for the senator to relent. Even some of Tuberville’s Republican colleagues have made their displeasure clear.
Tuberville has not relented.
Last week, the Senate attempted to move several high-profile military promotions forward with a slow-motion circumventing of Tuberville’s blockade. Those nominations included Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman nominated to lead one of the U.S. military service branches, and Gen. David Allvin, the new Air Force chief of staff. Both officers won approval, overwhelmingly.
Not unanimously, however. Marshall was the lone holdout.
How odd was that single opposition vote? Even Tuberville — the senator whose actions caused the mess at the Pentagon in the first place — voted in the end to confirm Franchetti and Allvin.
Marshall, of course, has every right to stand alone against military promotions or any other Senate measure he opposes. Such votes can be meaningful acts of conscience and principle.
Just to take one example: California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee was the only vote in the U.S. House of Representatives against authorizing war on Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. She urged her colleagues then to take care their response to that horror “does not spiral out of control.” Those remarks proved prescient.
Voters can judge the worthiness of a cause only when it is explained to them, however. As best we can tell, Marshall has offered nothing. Making his votes all the more noteworthy: Marshall served seven years in the Army Reserve, rising to the rank of captain. More than many politicians, the senator understands (or should, anyway) the importance of the military’s chain of command.
The good news is that the Navy and Air Force can finally proceed with new leadership, though their senior ranks continue to be hobbled by Tuberville’s holds. Marshall’s opposition to that leadership is, for the moment, inexplicable. Kansas voters deserve to know his reasoning.
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