Sen. Mark Kelly has a perfect 3-word response for Sen. Tommy Tuberville

For months, Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly has been trying to turn up the heat on Alabama Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville for his egomaniacal hold on military promotions.

Tuberville is an anti-abortion fanatic who wants the Pentagon to change its policy that reimburses military personnel for travel to states where they are not stationed in order to receive reproductive health care services, including abortion.

In an op-ed for Fox back in September, Kelly wrote in part, ”Tuberville is treating our service members and their families as political pawns … This leaves the most critical positions vacant or filled by acting personnel doing multiple jobs at once without the necessary experience and authority.”

He added, “That has a meaningful impact on the readiness of our force. Tuberville either doesn’t understand that or just doesn’t care, but it doesn’t make a difference, because the consequences are the same.”

Kelly had 3 choice words for Tuberville

On Tuesday, Tuberville announced that he finally would lift his blockade of nearly all the military promotions he had delayed, which was nearly 450.

Everybody but the 10 or 11 four-stars. “Those will continue,” Tuberville said.

There have been some politicians, including Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who have been trying to work out some type of compromise with Tuberville.

Kelly worked just as hard to keep up the pressure on the Alabama senator. To remind everyone how asinine it was to play politics with military readiness.

So, when Tuberville acquiesced on Tuesday, Kelly had no intention of patting Tuberville on the back or offering a polite thank you.

Instead, Kelly’s office issued a three-word statement from the senator concerning Tuberville’s decision to release all but a handful of the holds he had on those hundreds of military promotions.

It reads: “About damn time.”

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mark Kelly has a 3-word response for Tommy Tuberville's surrender