As discussed earlier today, Jeff Flake is a moral coward. Tonight, he is still a moral coward, just one trying harder to not be seen as one.
He is on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He could have withheld his vote on Brett Kavanaugh until a proper investigation was complete. He could have voted yes on Senator Blumenthal’s motion to subpoena Mark Judge. He could have moved to subpoena other witnesses. As a committee member, he could have done any number of things to fulfill the actual purpose of the committee, which is to vet the President’s judicial nominees.
Jeff Flake did nothing heroic today.
Let’s spell out what Jeff Flake actually did today.
First (as discussed in an earlier post), Flake announced that he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Kind of hard to walk that one back.
Flake was quickly called out for his moral cowardice. But the most significant disappointment came from Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat and good friend of Flake. When told by a reporter of Flake’s move, Coons couldn’t restrain his reaction:
Coons said, “Oh f—k,” then choked up, “We each make choices for our own reason. I’m struggling, sorry.”
Then, Jeff Flake was caught on camera being confronted by sexual assault survivors:
WATCH — Sexual assault survivors confront Jeff Flake on the elevator moments after he says he will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh pic.twitter.com/2d3ABs0s2H
— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) September 28, 2018
With Grassley pushing to have a vote on Kavanaugh, Sen. Coons nearly managed to get through to Flake; he convinced Flake, at least, that an FBI investigation should happen before Kavanaugh is confirmed. The result was then voted to move Kavanaugh out of committee and to the full Senate floor for consideration. The motion passed 11-10, making Flake the deciding vote. But Flake then announced his gentlemen’s agreement to the public.
To say people were stunned and confused is to put it lightly. At that point, CNN literally just gave up trying to explain things:
This was unprecedented, and absurd. This could be the first time in history that the Senate Judiciary Committee has recommended a nominee to the full Senate while acknowledging that a needed investigation of the nominee was incomplete. It is the entire job of the Senate Judiciary Committee to do this sort of vetting, and while other Republican Senators were clearly abdicating that responsibility, they make no pretenses. Flake’s problem is, he’s trying to pretend to care. He’s trying to put on a veneer of caring.
You know what would have made an actual political difference today? Flake refusing to vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination today. Flake holding the nomination up in committee until the committee did its damn job and finished investigating Kavanaugh. By moving the nomination to the full Senate floor, Flake is washing his hands of this. He wants to be seen as morally righteous, but he doesn’t want to do anything to actually prevent Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
So what now? The President has ordered the FBI to conduct a new investigation, and whatever the outcome of that may be, the full Senate will vote on Kavanaugh. That full Senate vote will now shield Flake from blame, no matter what happens next. Assuming, reasonably, that Collins and Murkowski are likely to vote together:
- If the FBI investigation turns up something new and particularly damning, Flake will vote “yes” on Kavanaugh like he declared he would this morning.
- If it does, but it’s not damning enough to move Collins and Murkowski to “no”, Flake can be the lone Republican “no” and cite his “conscience”, but Republicans won’t hate him for it because Kavanaugh will be confirmed anyway.
- If the FBI turns up soemthing damning enough to move Collins and Murkowski to “no”, then Flake can vote “no” with them, and still dodge blame for Kavanaugh’s defeat by asserting Kavanaugh would have lost even if Flake voted “yes” (and therefore it was Trump’s fault for picking a nominee that multiple Republicans couldn’t support).
As the lone undecided Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Jeff Flake was the only person with both the power and the motive to change today’s outcome, and instead he didn’t change it at all. He punted the problem out of committee, where he no longer has sole responsibility for the outcome. That’s all Jeff Flake did today. He took America’s problem and made sure it wasn’t personally his problem anymore.
Jeff Flake is a moral coward, and America should never forget that.