[UPDATE: Watch another woman confront Flake and demand an answer that he is unwilling to give.
Whether it was due to this public shaming or not, Flake has now said he wants the FBI to have a week to investigate the charges. But it was only a minor step since he did not vote against sending the nomination to the senate floor without an investigation.. Instead he voted with the other 10 Republicans on the judiciary committee to advance the nomination to the full senate floor, overriding the 10 Democrats on the committee. There the decision on whether to ask for an FBI investigation and, if so, its scope will fall to majority leader Mitch McConnell. He can choose to ignore Flake’s request and unless Flake and one other Republican senator say that they will vote against the nomination if there is no investigation and every single Democrat also say the same thing. There is still some doubt about Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heltkamp of North Dakota.]
As I predicted, for all his fine words and empathetic expressions, retiring Republican senator Jeff Flake is a party hack and always votes the party line and he has done so again, declaring that he will vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh, despite yesterday’s appalling testimony by the nominee where he displayed an appalling lack of judicial temperament, making wild accusations at all manner of people and groups in an angry tone of voice and almost bursting into tears at times.
Some hoped that because Flake and fellow Republican senator Bob corker are retiring, they might vote their consciences (ha!) because they need not fear repercussions at the polls. But the reason I was so confident in my prediction that both would vote for Kavanaugh is because legislators have a fear that is greater than that of voters, and this fear is especially pronounced for those who are retiring. Voting the party line is what these retiring legislators do because then they can go on to a lucrative career lobbying their former colleagues. They do not want to burn their bridges by angering them on their way out.
Flake was confronted by a woman sexual assault survivor in an elevator and could not even bring himself to look at her as she demanded an answer from him.
A sexual assault survivor just confronted Jeff Flake (who just announced he's voting for Kavanaugh): "Don't look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happened to me, that you will let people like that go into the highest court of the land" pic.twitter.com/Jix2BI090B
— David Mack (@davidmackau) September 28, 2018
I expect to see such scenes being repeated at election meetings across the country during the upcoming election period during which it is hard for a candidate to hide from voters. I hope that sexual abuse survivors and their allies will get in the face of and confront every person who supports Kavanaugh.
Trevor Noah has an excellent summary of yesterday’s hearing and compares the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh and has the perfect way to describe him.
Jimmy Kimmel rips into the cowardice of the Republican senators, especially Lindsey (Sir Robin) Graham who only found their voices only once Ford finished her testimony.
Of course Flake was going to confirm. They all will. Any that claim they’re “thinking about voting no” are just holding out for a bigger slice of cake. They’re all going to be swayed by having some DoD pork thrown into their districts, or the promise of better support on their next campaign.
None of this is principled -- it’s just establishing negotiating positions.
And for that matter, I doubt most of the Dems’ opposition is real. The Dems voted in massive increases of money for the DoD and voted along with military “interventions” -- they’re just as bad and corrupt, they are just out of power.
The game just changed and no one knows the rules.
So once again all us males have to rely on women voters to save us. And shame these cowards. And protest. And speak up.
I predict there will be 1 vote against from the republican side (Lisa?) and Kavanaugh will get confirmed. I just hope people dont forget that in 51 senators , almost no-one saw it fit to put country and basic humanity before another tax cut or something.
deepak shetty @3: What makes you think Murkowski would vote against? If her, why not Collins as well?
Give the FBI a week?!?
But her EMAILS!!!
They spent how long on Clinton? BENGHAZZZIIIIIIII!!!
@Rob Grigjanis
Because its Lisa’s turn to demonstrate how independent and mavericky and bipartisan she is.
Uh because then the nomination would fail and we cant have that.
This cheered me up considerably. (dunno how to or if I can embed in replies)
https://twitter.com/heyitschili/status/1045718359713681408
It’s fucking brilliant. When he’s saying he likes beer, he’s so pouty it’s like he thinks someone’s going to take his beer away. And then SLJ does just that.
IMHO, what we are seeing here is the beginning of the end. Yes, it is likely going to be a victory for the GOP and their elitist, misogynist, racist, servile catering to wealth and power ways. But the liberals have made them pull out all the stops and expose themselves for the principle-less exploiters they are. They have hidden behind conveniently labeled principles such as family values, decency, and even-handed sanity but the jig is up. All of those were tossed aside to get this syphilitic lesion of a man into the high court.
Two things: They will be shameless about it. There may even be loud cheering. They won. They owned the libs. But quietly things will have changed. People are seeing that the rich old white guys are not their protectors. That in the end it was always about money and power and control. That in the end the women are just tokens to be traded for favor from craven, callow conservative ruling class.
Just as the Anita Hill hearings were a spur to get more women into politics this is going to cause a backlash that only in hindsight will be seen for the Pyrrhic victory it really is.
We are coming to a crossroads. We will either be a democracy, or we will be a kleptocratic oligarchy. So far, and big time since Reagan got into office, the oligarchs have quietly won. The right has now gone out of its way to piss off the female half of the population and they may have sealed their fate if they stick to one-man-one-vote. But only if they abide by an actual vote.
The right has always projected its desires for a strong father figure to take power onto the liberals. A liberal totalitarian state is a real fear in the conservative consciousness. Will the right use this fear to justify their own inchoate desires and jump full-bore into victorious totalitarianism. Presumably as a preemptive strike against this nonexistent threat. Or are they willing to preserve the democratic form, and lose. IMHO that is the underlying question and meat of the matter.
Interesting times.