Republican Senator Jeff Flake, of all people:
It was we conservatives who were largely silent when the most egregious and sustained attacks on Obama’s legitimacy were leveled by marginal figures who would later be embraced and legitimized by far too many of us. It was we conservatives who rightly and robustly asserted our constitutional prerogatives as a coequal branch of government when a Democrat was in the White House but who, despite solemn vows to do the same in the event of a Trump presidency, have maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued. To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial.
[….]Under our constitution, there simply are not that many people who are in a position to do something about an executive branch in chaos. As the first branch of government (Article I), the Congress was designed expressly to assert itself at just such moments. It is what we talk about when we talk about “checks and balances.” Too often we observe the unfolding drama along with the rest of the country, passively, all but saying, “Someone should do something!” without seeming to realize that that someone is us. And so, that unnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch is an abdication, and those in positions of leadership bear particular responsibility.
I still bet he caves when the chips are down, after Trump fires Mueller in a few weeks or months.
Baud
He voted for Trumpcare.
Doug!
@Baud:
For example.
Millard Filmore
A minor suggestion: I think you mean
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Wow. This approaches Jen Rubin-level acquisition of self-awareness – and yet this fuckstick voted for Trumpcare.
Doug!
@Millard Filmore:
Thanks
Cheryl Rofer
Good. A small start, but in the right direction.
Turgidson
He’s simply dancing the time-honored dance of vulnerable and/or ambitious Republican officeholders. Say a bunch of sane things that will delight the BothSiderists and Villagers and might impress the target electorate’s independents and not-quite-as-batshit GOPers. Then vote and act like your typical braindead dolt…I mean, Republican…and make the cynical bet that the former gets more attention than the latter. That bet pays off as often as not. And while AZ is drifting toward swing state-ish status, Flake will probably be safe if he keeps playing this shell game.
Hunter Gathers
Coward.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Of course he did.
Another bog-standard RWNJ.
Big mouth, all “concerned”, but Yertle McTurtle can always count on his actual vote.
I don’t know squat about AZ politics. Is he actually in trouble next year?
? Martin
But not me! I’ll get primaried!
They all think they’re Tank Man, but they won’t do a fucking thing. And speaking of which, fuck the DCCC for not drawing a line against pro-life candidates.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they could put a leash on trump in that regard by letting it be known that the Intelligence Committee and/or the Gang of Eight had his tax returns
Suzanne
Jeff Flake is a nice guy who does Bad Shit. I grew up just a couple of miles from where he lives in Mesa (though not in a fancy gated community, like the Senator). I know the type. There’s a subset of Mormons who highly prize the blank, meaningless, placid smile, the cheerfulness and niceness that mask some truly gross impulses or dark secrets. It’s the Phoenix East Valley version of Minnesota Nice. Those of us who live around it for a while learn to recognize it. Flake is unfailingly polite and avoids contentiousness at all costs, then does the same things that all the GOP dudes do. Unfooled.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
hasn’t trump already threatened him, or was that just Heller?
ruemara
That mealy mouthed, both sides, shit stain in a short sleeved shirt. It’s a beginning to own the evil that is his party, but for him to also try to lay blame on Dems? Ha, fuck you guy.
Suzanne
@efgoldman:
In my estimation, no. The only likely primary challenger he has so far is Kelli Ward, who is fully psycho, and who has likely alienated a lot of her own party with her ghoulish comments about McCain this week. And the AZ Dems haven’t done a good job fielding good Senate candidates in recent years–with the exception of Richard Carmona, who came within a couple of points of Flake last time. The only Dem candidate I know of so far is Deedra Abboud, a Muslim woman who has never held significant office. My Congresscritter, who is the grossest, slimiest kind of Blue Dog (Kyrsten Sinema), just might have a chance if she gets in, but I doubt she wants to risk her Congressional seat.
Honestly, Flake is weak, but he is the type of Central Casting generic LDS GOP dude that Arizona elects.
O. Felix Culpa
@Suzanne:
In my experience, Minnesota Nice is genuinely nice. But the rest of your description fits perfectly.
Gelfling 545
Could this be an indication that Trump is finally becoming too toxic even for Republicans to stomach? Or, given Trump’s threats, he may have decided that breaking with him completely is the better part .
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
When some of these guys do something other than talk, I might be impressed. Until then, none of this is anything but a lot of good sounding words.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Arizona isn’t a state; it’s a government-run real estate scam run at the expense of MMA bros, stupid fucking hippies and geriatric racists.
also too
piratedan
@Suzanne: if only Gov Terry would toss his hat in the ring…. but who knows, in this day and age, when the GOP has essentially pissed off every constituency that they don’t own (racists, sexists and gun nuts) or the people that own them (Russians and our own 1%) maybe the deed can be done. I can only caveat one truism, the GOP SOS will do everything in their power to disenfranchise anyone not in a GOP constituency, so obviously the effort to register voters and get them to the polls is key.
Turgidson
@ruemara:
I am actually fairly impressed at how little “But ZOMG the Democrats” throat-clearing stupidity is in Flake’s piece. There’s basically none, really.
Until he actually does something as he claims he and his party should, it’s all a show for the David Brooks/Andy Sullivan crowd and of no substantive consequence. As we saw with Heller, Cassidy, Graham, Capito, Portman…there’s always a GOP Senator or two who is willing to say the right thing for the cameras and the op-ed boards, but will fold like Superman on laundry day when it comes time to actually DO the right thing. Flake needs to back up this talk, hopefully soon.
Suzanne
@piratedan: Terry Goddard has run for multiple statewide offices (I’ve volunteered for him), and he keeps coming up short. He’s smart and experienced and competent and reasonable and unflashy, and therefore has zero chance.
Greg Stanton desperately wants to be governor, and he is relatively progressive.
jl
” I still bet he caves when the chips are down ”
Way things are going, caving to the super duper rich donors, and caving to Trump may not be the same thing for much longer.
That is the most sense I can make of it.
Vast majority of GOP will cave to Trump, or GOP leadership, or the donors, rather than people who they are supposed to represent.
It may get complicated, since GOP leadership is trying to cave to super duper rich donors, but not doing very well at it.
Schlemazel
@O. Felix Culpa:
Mostly MN nice is nice but there is occasionally something else going on there. LArgely white, largely Arrian in heritage, but also sometimes tightly wound, not wanting to be too close or too personal (imagine being stuck in a cabin for 4 months out of the year – high emotions could be dangerous) it can be hard to tell what is a black heart from what is just that wall we have built as protection from the cold.
Jinchi
Sasse votes with Trump 96% of the time according to 538.
lamh36
Here’s the test for Kelly…let’s see if Cheeto responds via twitter to Flake as he had in the past!!!
ruemara
@Turgidson: He opens with the idea of Trump as a mutually owned sin, but, interpretations vary.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Schlemazel: Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a lot of the malign undercurrent carried over from Scandinavian Janteloven?
Roger Moore
@Turgidson:
There’s a bit of pro-forma both-siderism in the beginning:
I would love for him to sit down and name them, but I don’t think he would manage to get enough to count as many.
Jinchi
Flake too.
schrodingers_cat
I am glad that this is a ha-ha laugh out loud funny joke to you.
Aunt Kathy
I see this as laying the groundwork for a 2020 Pres run, both him & Sasse. I heard Flake just the other day say one of the achievevements of the Trump admin was Neil Gorsuch on the court. Flake can’t try and make nice now if he didn’t vociferously object to how the GOP treated Merrick Garland. He can take all his navel gazing and stick it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Annie
I’m actually not so sure Dolt 45 will fire Mueller. He would like to, certainly, but he’s a coward, and he got a lot of blowback from firing Comey that he did not expect. He may shrink in fear from another mess like that. Also, IIRC the terms of Mueller’s appointment, he can’t fire Mueller himself, he’d have to tell Rosenstein to fire Mueller. Would Rosenstein do that? Or would he resign instead? If Rosenstein did resign, who fires Mueller? And how long and public is the charade of looking for somebody in the Justice Department to do that?
Tom Q
I think it’s unfair to say Flake must be full of it just because for voted for Trumpcare. No one’s asserting that Flake is a crypto-liberal. He’s quite conservative, and will vote that way as long as he’s in office. The difference between him and what seems 80-90% of his elected fellow-partyers is, he doesn’t feel politics is blood sport where anything that achieves his side’s goals is defensible. It’s not as if conservatives are going to ever disappear. But, 25/50/75 years ago, many of them behaved like human beings even while in full-on opposition.
I’d be happy to have a Republican party with a lot more Jeff Flakes, even while striving to defeat them in every election.
Turgidson
@jl:
In that sense, the Senate’s faceplant was about as good a result as the Democrats could have hoped for. Heller made it quite plain that he values the checks Steve Wynn and presumably Adelson can write more than he values the welfare of his state’s non-billionaire electorate. He got a few angry phone calls demanding that he STAY BOUGHT, and he melted into a puddle of hypocrisy and cowardice. So he took an awful vote and the bill failed anyway. Love it. Flake isn’t going to enjoy defending that vote in his election either, though he wasn’t as ostentatious in his stupidity as Heller was.
It’s no coincidence that the three No votes from the GOP side were people who can credibly tell the Kochs and the rest of the GOP plutocrat financier assholes to go piss up a rope without risking their futures in elected office. Murkowski has won TWICE now (once as a freaking write-in) without the support of the braindead far right, and she probably won herself the undying loyalty of a decent chunk of the state’s Dem-leaning voters for her death blow to Trumpcare. Collins wins with like 70% of the vote based on playing a convincing “last “moderate Republican in existence” on TV while [finally I can say, almost!!] always folding to the party when they tell her to. And McCain is a crotchety old man who just won reelection, probably wasn’t going to run again even before his recent health news, hates Trump, doesn’t need plutocrat money or favors, and probably has a grudge against McConnell for tanking his campaign finance reform efforts.
Unless Collins leaves to run for governor (hopefully to be replaced by a Democrat), those three aren’t going anywhere. May they continue to flaunt their independence in future votes.
Suzanne
@Aunt Kathy:
Generic nice is all the guy does. He doesn’t vociferously do anything. I bet even his orgasms are polite and unobtrusive.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Annie: Somebody on Comey’s team leaked today that Kelly called Comey after he was fired and was thinking about resigning in protest. I take that as a shot across trump’s bow and an attempt on Ben Wittes’ part (maybe?) to put the Mueller question back in the spotlight.
M. Bouffant
I thought the Electoral College was supposed to be the first line of defense against people like Trump gaining power. How’d that work out, aptly named Flake?
Holden Pattern
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: IOW, talk is cheap, whiskey costs money.
Schlemazel
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
I think that comes fomr being shut up with people for extended periods of time. But there is a vein running through Scandinavian culture that Kellor caught perfectly in his letters from Lake Wobegone
You are not special
You are not better
and you should never get to content or misery will follow.
I was taught those things though they were never actually spoken
The positive side is we used to have a very egalitarian State where people took care of everyone because we understood it might be us
O. Felix Culpa
@Schlemazel:
Good insight and nicely put.
O. Felix Culpa
@Suzanne: Win!
Aunt Kathy
@Suzanne: HA! and ew.
mai naem mobile
Flake was the head of the Goldwater Institute before he ran for office. The Goldwater Institute is like a state version of Grover Norquists group. Any tax or any extra cost for big business, is fought against. They’re the reason the state got into trouble education funding. I would have to go back to look cases up but it’s crazy what they’ve fought. So, fuck Flake.
Kay
Today I was thinking Trump almost has to stay outrageous. If he started acting like a normal human being he’d stop being a novelty act and just be a bad President.
He’s better off with the drama, really. The only thing worse than this is if people figure out he’s dumb and incompetent.
A lot of high-drama people are like that. If you strip out all the screeching they’re just ordinary bad people, so they stay dramatic. It’s what makes them stand out.
Librarian
Holy crap, I remember that song . “Arizona, cut off your Indian braids. ….”
MCA1
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I don’t think so (Minne expat myself). Or, at most, it’s a subset of Minnesota Nice. That ethos is certainly there, or was when I was growing up, but it’s mostly expressed in a sort of forced humility and mild shame attached to any sort of self-promotion. “Too big for their britches” was a term I heard my grandparents utter countless times growing up (and they were mostly German/Austrian rather than Scandinavian). At least in modern times, though, the Jante concept is usually a pretty benign sense of collective humility, like Keillor’s consistent joke that “We don’t really deserve better than this.”
Minnesota Nice, as a general matter, tends to come from an intense desire for social order, consensus, and passionate, almost physical revulsion at open confrontation. Its dark side is expressed mostly in passive aggression, since direct hostility is seen as undesired behavior. That’s why everyone from Minnesota knows that “Oh, that’s interesting” oftentimes means “I hate that.” To the extent that the Law of Jante concepts could be seen as having community harmony and consensus as their goal, then I suppose they could find expression in being outwardly friendly to others so that there’s no impression that you think you’re better than they are. There’s a broader, more positive basis for Minnesota Nice than just that, though.
Susan K of the tech support
Jeff Flake’s voting record, from FiveThirtyEight-dot-com. 95.5% in line with Trump.
Let’s get out that ole Venn Diagram of Words and Deeds.
mai naem mobile
@Aunt Kathy: he has zero chance . His son and DIL had a dog boarding business and left the dogs in a a room with no ac or water. A bunch died and he got off with a slap on the wrist. Nah, this is to help him win reelection next year.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@MCA1: @Schlemazel: thx
GregB
As usual, the folks who were on the right side of history and had this bloated snausage of a wannabe tyrant pegged from the getgo won’t get credit for prescience and everyone wil jump up and down at the principles of those bailing off the train just before it jumps the tracks.
Cheryl Rofer
It’s easy to be angry at people like Flake and condemn them for “just words.” But a move against Trump by Republicans will come only in small increments until the avalanche. And Flake may yet backslide. But Republicans will listen only to other Republicans, so it’s important that Flake say these things. We’ll see what he does in the future and whether he emboldens others to move.
A good thread from James Fallows weighing the votes and the words.
Ithink
@Suzanne:
That orgasm critique was absolutely hysterical s***-talk and deliriously disgusting @ the same time! QOTD!!
Roger Moore
@Tom Q:
It’s not just Trumpcare. It’s every last thing that Trump has asked for. The only major points where Flake has gone against Trump were the continuing resolution and Russia sanctions. You can’t give Trump everything he asks for and then moan about how nobody is keeping him in check.
Turgidson
@MCA1:
Oh, that’s interesting.
I kid, I kid.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Roger Moore:
I’m skeptical too, but maybe Flake has had a change of heart. Can’t really tell unless he starts taking concrete actions.
Roger Moore
@mai naem mobile:
So a local variant on the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association?
mai naem mobile
@Suzanne: I wish Richard Carmona would run again. I think in this climate he would pull it off this time. I would love to see my Rep Kyrsten Sinema who drives me crazy because I think she could be bluer. She’s very sharp and remindsenoff early Claire McCaskill. Watch Kyrsten Sinema. She’s young and I would not be surprised if she ends up becoming POTUS or Veep way down the road.
Turgidson
@Cheryl Rofer:
Not like Fallows to throw in stray “both sides” comments. I presume his “both sides” example would be Democrats who weren’t appropriately outraged at Bubba’s infamous blowjob? But generally when a Democrat acts like an insufferable horse’s ass or a crook, the party repudiates him or her with alacrity. The GOP, even before and independent of Hair Furor, really can’t say the same. They stayed loyal to Tom DeLay until he went to the clink, it felt like, to take just one example. None of them batted a fucking eyelash at Turdblossom and Scooter Libby outing Valerie Plame just to be assholes. Et cetera.
Clinton was an extremely smart, competent and relatively good president who had a major personal failing that got him in trouble. Obama was also extremely smart and a model of class and civility from start to finish and did nothing to embarrass or frighten his own party into thinking he was unfit or dangerous. So what’s this Both Sides, kemosabe Fallows?
Schlemazel
@MCA1:
also nicely explained!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: I think you and Fallows have a point. I don’t doubt that the media love McCain has gotten makes another ‘no’ vote on a rushed health care bill likely, if McConnell tries to pull that off again, and all the applause Murkowski and Collins are getting in their home states. And Heller and one or two others might decide they want some of that love for themselves. And I doubt Collins is the only Senator who thinks the governor’s job sure looks nice
I’ve always thought being the anti-trumper in the Senate was a smart longterm play for younger Rs like Sasse or even Wee Marco
EthylEster
@Gelfling 545 says:
No.
azlib
As my lobbyist friend said a few weeks ago, in slowly turning purple AZ, most Republicans fear a primary challenge from the right. Once the right wing nut job is taken care of, they turn to the middle. McCain did this whole schtick his last election. I remember well the “build the dang wall” commercials he ran during the primary. What is surprising about Flake, he is turning “moderate” early. His internal polls must be telling him Trump is more toxic in AZ than most of us realize. I am surprised by his Trumpcare vote, but maybe he knew what McCain was going to do and knew his vote did not matter as to the outcome and did it to appease the rightwingers.
Flake’s negatives are quite high. He can be picked off with the right kind of campaign.
zhena gogolia
@ruemara:
This is his weak-sauce conclusion:
So, where should Republicans go from here? First, we shouldn’t hesitate to speak out if the president “plays to the base” in ways that damage the Republican Party’s ability to grow and speak to a larger audience. Second, Republicans need to take the long view when it comes to issues like free trade: Populist and protectionist policies might play well in the short term, but they handicap the country in the long term. Third, Republicans need to stand up for institutions and prerogatives, like the Senate filibuster, that have served us well for more than two centuries.
Cheryl Rofer
@Turgidson: I was wondering about the “both sides” stuff too, haven’t had time to contemplate it.
Cheryl Rofer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes. One of the criticisms of Flake I’m seeing on Twitter is that this is to prepare a run for the presidency, but hey, why not? Particularly if it’s sincere (or whatever we are calling it these days). Flake has been warning about Trump, even as he’s voted with him.
Suzanne
@mai naem mobile: Kyrsten Sinema is my rep, too, and I think she is a spineless POS. Friggin’ wrote about the Rwandan genocide, yet voted to block Syrian refugees. She is the pinnacle of crappiness. I vote for her only because she puts us closer to Minority Leader Ryan. I worked hard for her primary opponent in the first Congressional race for that district, David Schapira, who is now running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Schapira is sooooo much better than she is. She is such a cipher—I bet she consults a poll to find out what to wear in the morning. I don’t know anybody in the Party here who likes her.
I think Carmona could possibly win in 2018. As you said, he came close. I know some people who worked on his campaign, and they did a great job. I don’t think Abboud has a snowball’s chance in hell, though she seems like a very principled, hardworking person.
Doug!
@schrodingers_cat:
To the contrary, I find it very scary that people like Flake may not do anything when Trump fires Mueller.
Doug!
@Annie:
I’m actually not so sure Dolt 45 will fire Mueller
I think that Mueller will find criminal wrong-doing so Trump will have to fire him or pardon people.
mai naem mobile
@Roger Moore: well,they do get into free speech stuff but I think it’s more window dressing than anythung. Theyre big on school choice AKA kill public educarion. Their old legal director who is on the AZ SC was Clint Bolick. You may remember him from the Clinton years.
mai naem mobile
@Suzanne: Abboud should have run for something local and she may have had a chance. There’s Chris Russell. If stuff goes right and it’s a wave election he may barely pull it off but it’s a long shot. There was talk of Neil Giuliano running but I guess he decided against it. The AZ Dem bench is pathetic and it’s disgusting knowing the long history of some strong Dems in the state.