Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/02/jeff-flake-kavanaughs-tone.html
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“Because of what he’s been through”?!?
JFC…
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I’d like to think he’s had a moment of realisation but he’s not seeking re-election in the mid-terms…
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If wingnut welfare doesn’t work out after he leaves the Senate this shows he has a future in the landscaping industry, what with all the hedging and fence-sitting.
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Jeff Flake will hem and haw and make a bunch of scrunched up concerned faces, and then he’ll vote for him.
The only reason Flake is even pretending to be on the fence about Kavanaugh is because of Trump. If you grew a pasty white asshole in a lab to appeal to everything Jeff Flake believes in and wants out of the Court and government in general, it would look exactly like Brett Kavanaugh. He is very nearly the platonic ideal of what the mainstream GOP wants.
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How many Republicans edging out now are calculating their presidential chances post-Trumpocalypse?
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Flake followers would be quick to give many examples of Senator Flake making sensible, nigh sympathetic, statement after statement, only to end voting in the opposite (nasty) fashion. Flake depends on statements and kindly facial expressions being recorded while actual voting records are way too boring to recall. That’s the lesson du trump: trojan politics, or beware of republicans acting humanely. (why… i believe St Maddow has cautioned us to: “follow what they do, not what they say”)
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Agreed. In my humble-and-entirely-biased opinion, Flake’s trying to play both sides (badly.) He’s covering his ass by making conciliatory statements and calling for an investigation he knows damn well Republicans will ignore. That way, when he votes party line, he can shrug and deflect any blame for it. It’s doubly insulting that he thinks we’re stupid enough to fall for his obvious posturing.
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Flake woke up, decided to save his soul. Does he have inoperable cancer?
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Hey somebody has to fill McCain’s shoes.
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But “partisan” is exactly what the GOP wants on the Supreme Court. They have spent years complaining about “activist judges” but in reality that’s what they’ve been working for, it’s like they want umpires who are huge fans of their team, and will change the strike zone every half inning.
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That’s totally unfair! Flake has a long and distinguished career of seeming to be concerned about issues his party would rather ignore.
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i wish someone would go up to Grassley and Graham and all those other assholes and call them on it when they say this. what HE’S been through?? it’s only been a few weeks for him – Blasey Ford has had to live with this for DECADES.
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I took it as part of Flake’s thought experiment: “What if he’s telling the truth? Is he still worthy” It’s an interesting experiment. But it does mean starting with hypothetical assumptions that would upset a lot of people **.
Assumption 1: He’s telling the truth
Assumption 2: If someone is being hounded for something they didn’t do, they might deserve a little leeway. Assumption 3: But not unlimited leeway.
Flake appears to be saying veering into partisan remarks is going too far.
Conclusion: Even if innocent, Kavanaugh isn’t supreme court material.
I’ve heard others say something similar. i.e., guilty or not, Kavanaugh displayed behavior during testimony that is antithetical to being a SCJ.
** before anyone accuses me of something, I think he’s guilty and shouldn’t be a SCJ
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I don’t believe any such thing is going on in his mind.
Flake is, ironically enough, a flake; his word is meaningless.
The way he chose to frame his comment does speak to his own male entitlement though; passively sympathizing with Kavanaugh as if he’s somehow a victim in all this.
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The best comment on this reality is that calling character that hedges and flip-flops this bad “Flake” in a fictional story would get you a stern note from your editor.
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Yeah, if only he’d had his supposed change of heart before voting for the committee to approve sending his nomination to the full Senate.
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“I hope I would sound that indignant if I was unjustly maligned,” he said, “but then it went on. And the interaction with the members was sharp and partisan and that concerns me,” Flake said. “And I tell myself you give a little leeway because of what he’s been through. But, on the other hand, we can’t have this on the Court. We simply can’t.”
So. Blackout Brett’s innocent but too uncivil fDoesn’t at all sound like someone ready to vote no. If he believes that Kavanaugh’s innocent then he clearly has a reason to vote against confirmation regardless of the FBY farce, I mean, investigation.
So why isn’t Flake committing to a vote against Kavanaugh? That’s rhetorical; When it comes to casting a vote, Flake’s nearly always a party goose stepper.
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