The Senator of the pilot, who was back on Earth, is someone who has
in past been someone that Sinclair has come to for backing on things; he's
the equivilent of someone on the Armed Services Committee, here as one of
those civilian Senators overseeing Earthforce. He would not be in any
position to just come in and take over, any more than a Senator visiting a
U.S. army base would be in a position to take over the base if there were
a problem with the ranking officer. But he might be able to bring some
force to bear back in Washington, which might double-back to be of some
use.

There are civilian branches and military branches, as with today, in
which the civilian branch oversees the military, but in very formalized
ways.

jms