Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a Democrat reported to be on Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice president, said Thursday that she would block 1,123 military promotions that need Senate confirmation unless Defense Secretary Mark Esper assures her that he won’t take retaliatory action against one of the party’s star impeachment witnesses.
Duckworth, herself an Iraq veteran, said she wants confirmation from Esper that Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will face no barriers to promotion due to his participation in the impeachment hoax of President Donald Trump. If she doesn’t get that written confirmation, Duckworth said, she will refuse to confirm the military promotions currently awaiting confirmation.
“Our military is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy,” Duckworth said. “It is simply unprecedented and wrong for any Commander in Chief to meddle in routine military matters at all, whether or not he has a personal vendetta against a Soldier who did his patriotic duty and told the truth — a Soldier who has been recommended for promotion by his superiors because of his performance. . . . This goes far beyond any single military officer, it is about protecting a merit-based system from political corruption and unlawful retaliation.”
In early February, immediately after the Senate acquitted President Trump on the impeachment charges brought against him by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, Vindman was summarily fired from the National Security Council and escorted off the White House grounds. He subsequently returned to his old job at the Pentagon and his attorney took to the media to complain that his client was being persecuted for his testimony.
“There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House,” Vindman’s lawyer said at the time. “LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. His honor, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful.”
Well, not really. While we don’t believe that Vindman was simply reassigned because the White House was doing routine downsizing, we also find it hard to view Vindman as some sort of American patriot, standing bravely against the powerful. He was a useful idiot in the Democratic Party’s war against the president, and he was all-too-happy to score his fifteen minutes of fame at the expense of national security. How is the president supposed to trust Vindman’s advice and counsel after he’s shown such a ready willingness to betray that trust?
Why would such a man be in line for a promotion? That he still collects a government check at all sticks in our craw.
Comments are closed.