This is an opinion column.

Tommy Tuberville isn’t going to budge. No one will talk him out of his stubborn blockade, now freezing hundreds of top military officers in place. No gentle nudge from within his party will persuade him. No threat from abroad will deter him.

It’s time to give Tommy Tuberville what he wants, and that might be the greatest punishment of all.

Because I don’t think he’s considered what that means.

There’s a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. R. Lee Ermey’s Marine drill instructor knocks over the footlocker of a private he’s taken to picking on for being overweight. Inside, he finds a contraband jelly donut and he holds it in front of the private’s face, pinched between two fingers, like it’s a mouse he pulled from the garbage. He cusses the private but he doesn’t punish him. Instead, he punishes everybody else in the barracks — making them do pushups as the private eats the donut — and then he lets them take care of the private later, in the dark of night with socks full of soap.

It’s time for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to make Tuberville eat his donut.

Schumer can’t put Tuberville in his place, but Tuberville’s colleagues can. To give him his due, first everyone will have to suffer.

Since February, Tuberville has stonewalled the promotions and appointments of hundreds of top military officers. Tuberville says he’s fighting wokeness in the military, particularly benefits for service members crossing state lines to seek abortions.

But every accusation is a confession. Tuberville can point until his finger’s sore, but he has disrupted our armed services and politicized the military for his personal benefit.

And he has relished the attention, even as party colleagues have pressured him to give up.

Finally, in September, Schumer blinked. In a work-around, the Senate leader forced a vote on three nominations — the Marine Corps commandant, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of staff for the Army.

The whole process took about a day and a half of work, but it got the three appointments through.

Tuberville declared victory.

“This hold is not affecting readiness,” Mr. Tuberville told the New York Times. “If Democrats want to complain, they should look in the mirror. I don’t control the floor; the Democrats do.”

Tuberville has mocked Schumer and the Democrats for not wanting to put in the work of approving the appointments and promotions individually instead of in blocks, which Tuberville’s hold prevents. If the Senate leadership wanted, it could move the appointments, Tuberville has said.

And he’s not wrong.

Instead, Schumer let everyone go home for August recess, giving Tuberville even more ammunition.

If these positions are as important as Democrats say, they could move them through.

And they should.

It’s time to give Tuberville what he wants.

Such a thing won’t be pleasant. Estimates for moving the appointments through the hard way have ranged from hundreds of hours to months.

It could mean lawmakers eat Thanksgiving dinner in their offices.

But it’s Democrats’ unwillingness to do the work that gives Tuberville his power over the Senate.

The only way to take it from him is to do the work.

The only way to prove the other 99 members of the Senate care more about our military than Tuberville is to put in the time.

Otherwise, they are as guilty in this charade as Tuberville.

And the best punishment Tuberville could endure is sharing a workplace with 99 colleagues and their staffers who’d gladly treat him to a beating if they could.

Call them in. Sit them down. Get to work.

No weekends. No holidays. No watching football on Saturday. No golf on Thursday.

Sure, Tuberville will gloat. He will declare victory and strut. For the first few hours, he will delight in the attention.

He’ll enjoy his jelly donut. For a time.

But this sort of thing gets old quickly, and if there’s one thing Tuberville has shown, he prefers the beach to his workplace. After the first few hours, it will hurt him more than it does everyone else. The icy stares will freeze him out. The snarky remarks behind his back will finally start to sting.

He will be stuck — the least popular person in a place he doesn’t want to be.

For an ego like his, he’d rather be beaten with socks full of soap.

So give him what he wants. Put the donut in his mouth.

Make him eat it.