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Susan Wright on the Right

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Republican Senator Flinches, Creates a New Bump in the Road to Kavanaugh’s Confirmation

Republican Senator Flinches, Creates a New Bump in the Road to Kavanaugh’s Confirmation

Last updated on: September 28, 2018 at 3:25 pm by Susan Wright

Republican Senator Flinches, Creates a New Bump in the Road to Kavanaugh’s Confirmation 2018-09-28T15:25:56-04:00 Susan Wright

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Flake flakes.

That’s right. After expressing his approval of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve as the next justice to sit in the Supreme Court, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake seems to have wilted under pressure from his Democrat friends.

The entire mess began after Thursday’s testimony from Judge Kavanaugh, as well as the woman who has accused him of attacking her when they were both kids in high school, back in 1982.

Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford’s testimony was compelling. It was gut-wrenching and likely drudged up horrible, waking nightmares for so many women who have experienced similar traumatic experiences.

On the other hand, Judge Kavanaugh gave an impassioned, sometimes defensive bit of testimony, himself.

This is a man who is seeing all his life’s hard work and accomplishments, along with the well-being of his wife and small children threatened by the ugliness of our current political climate.

As I’ve said before, every inch of this drama is inspired by partisan politics.

It is ugly. It is vile. There should be no place for it in an alleged civil society.

So was Dr. Ford a political plant, brought forward to exact revenge against a Republican Congress that did not vote on Merrick Garland in 2016?

And why did Neil Gorsuch not face the same scrutiny? Certainly, they were as upset at Gorsuch being seated before Garland, so was his youth as squeaky clean as that of all the Democrat lawmakers grilling Kavanaugh?

We don’t know the whole story with Ford. She doesn’t either. Her grasp of the facts of her own claim was tenuous, at absolute best.

BUT – she was 100 percent sure that everything she was saying was true (even the things she couldn’t remember).

Kavanaugh, often fighting back obvious tears of frustration, was 100 percent sure that he did not do the things she was accusing him of.

He had reasonable answers (at least, if you’re untainted by partisan politics) to most questions (even those things asked over and over by the Democrats).

Ultimately, it was a grotesque case of he-said-she-said, and sides were chosen by those on the committee, according to which political camp they were a part of.

Senator Dick Durbin, no slimier Democrat will you find in all of Capitol Hill, sought to trip up Kavanaugh during his questioning, by urging the judge to turn and ask that the vote on his confirmation be delayed, in order to allow the FBI to investigate the claims of Ford.

The 36 year old teenaged claims of Ford, based on times and places she isn’t clear of, and people who have already denied knowledge of the events she has spoken of.

Kavanaugh didn’t take the bait, and as of Friday morning, the vote was set to push forward.

It was, but then – Flake.

After some theatrics from Democrats, who chose to walk out of the hearing room and seek out the cameras (Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Kamala Harris, Richard Blumenthal, and Mazie Hirono), Senator Flake huddled with his good friend, Democrat Senator Christopher Coons, as well as Senator Amy Klobucher (Minnesota).

When he emerged, he had a big about face.

Flake said he was voting for Kavanaugh with the understanding that Republican colleagues would support a one-week delay to give the FBI time to investigate.

“I have been speaking with a number of people on the other side … in regard to making sure that we do due diligence here,” Flake said.

“I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope,” he added.

“I will only comfortable moving on the floor until the FBI has done more investigation than they have already,” he continued. “It may not take them a week. I understand that some of these witnesses may not want to discuss anything further but I think we owe them due diligence.”

Compromise.

I can only imagine Kavanaugh is somewhere trying to stave off a coronary.

As it is, Flake has the support for this move to delay of Alaska Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Another female Republican, Senator Susan Collins, of Maine, remains undecided.

Flake said in his earlier statement that in a different political environment that he believed Kavanaugh would have been easily confirmed. He noted that while he found Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh’s accuser, “compelling,” he still had doubts after the hearing.

“I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty,” he said.

Flake was always going to be the wild card in this.

Throughout the morning there was chatter. Flake kept his head down, a visible grimace on his face, as his colleagues spoke.

Currently, Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, and only 50 votes are needed to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination. They need the 50 votes, and Vice President Pence could be the tie-breaking vote.

By a show of hands, who thinks that if the FBI returns in a week and says that there is absolutely nothing to corroborate Ford’s claims, that the matter would be settled for Democrats?

I promise you, it would not be settled.

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