Posted on 12/05/2018 3:10:00 PM PST by Signalman
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is leaving, but not quietly. The immensely unpopular Republicanhas decided to totally trashhis partys judicial agenda. Flake is the key 11thvote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and hes not budging until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell holds a binding vote on a billprotecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Department of Justices Russia investigation. Its frustrating. Its deplorable. And it just comes to show you why Flake would never have won re-election if he decided to execute a suicidal banzai charge concerning that effort. He would have been knocked off in a primary, but I digress. The Senate Judiciary Committee has pushed back votes on judges. In all, hes holding up the advancement of 21 judicial nominations, along with the confirmation of an additional 32 nominees whose votes are now stalled on the floor (via CNN):
Sen. Jeff Flake's vow to block judicial nominees is significantly disrupting the Senate Judiciary Committee's plans to advance more of President Donald Trump's picks for the lower courts.
The committee's chairman, Chuck Grassley, plans to scrap a Thursday meeting if Flake doesn't back off his threat to vote against all pending nominees until he gets a floor vote on a bill to protect special counsels like Robert Mueller from political interference, according to a Grassley aide. This would be the second meeting in consecutive weeks the committee has scrapped, delaying 22 nominees from floor consideration by the end of the year.
Flake is not going to budge, so it would appear the judicial agenda for this Congress is over. Flake torpedoed it over something that is anathema to the GOP base. Hes a thorn in the side, a perpetual pain in the a** who will reap nothing with this ridiculous stunt. If he thinks sinking conservative judges will garner him gold stars in his potential bid for the presidencyyes, he seems to be mulling a runthis is a massive Never Trump miscalculation. This move should motivate people to hurl beer bottles at Flake. McConnell went deeper into why Flakes course of action is straight idiocy (via Newsweek):
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took aim at outgoing GOP Senator Jeff Flake Tuesday night, calling Flakes attempt to block judicial nominees until a vote is held on a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller a "futile gesture."
Im perplexed, frankly, by his pushing for the Mueller protection bill, McConnell said at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C.
McConnell believed the measure to protect Mueller, a bipartisan bill that would curb Trumps ability to interfere with Mueller's investigation or to fire the special counsel, is blatantly unconstitutional.
McConnell added that the House would never pass it and the president would never sign it.
"It strikes me as, what I would call, a futile gesture, and were hoping that [Flake] will change his view on that," McConnell said. "I believe we could confirm the judges that are already out on the floor."
Flake is quickly becoming one of the biggest cancers to the GOP. He cannot leave soon enough.
McConnell can simply remove Flake from the committee.
I think Trump is trying to turn McConnell. When he invited McConnell to one of his stage events McConnell got more cheers and adulation probably than he has ever had before.
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponents Argument
The Founding States gave the Houses of Congress the express constitutional authority to expel immensely unpopular members on a 2/3 majority vote.
"Article I, Section 5, Clause 2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member [emphasis added]."
Evidenced by Sen. Flake, the RINO Party probably uses such members as a front-end to fool ordinary Republican voters.
There is absolutely no legal requirement that the Senate Judiciary Committee pass it out for a floor vote. McConnell should just stick it up flakes wazoo and go ahead and hold the floor vote.
I remember that
Or worse, Flake is upset because President Trump has cut off his supply chain of small children pouring over our Southern border. Either way, you guys are on to something.
LOL
Flake has his standards, however. No one younger than 3!
Jeff Flake is doing his best to make Benedict Arnold look like a hero in comparison to his actions.
I don’t usually wish bad luck to follow a person but I wish it on him for his intentional traitorous behavior as a Senator.
Committee votes aren’t even necessary. This is theatre. If they really wanted to push through judges hey could do it and there would be zero consequences
Every Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, when they had their chance to question Kavanaugh, urged him to request that the FBI begin an investigation. It was their talking point. That went over like a lead ballon, because alone, they didn’t have the numbers to stall the vote to move the nomination on to the Senate. All they needed was one Republican, and they chose the weakest one...the one they knew they could threaten and intimidate to do their dirty work for them. After all, he’s done it before for them. I hope one day we find out what it is they were blackmailing him over, and I hope his actions haunt him for the rest of his life.
Hopefully they learn the lesson. Don’t put Murkowski, Collins, Romeny or Paul on this committee if you don’t want his to happen again.
I normally don’t wish violence on our leadership but Flake is the exception. He truly deserves a good ass whoopin’ for his behavior.
May the fangs of a thousand rattlesnakes find his neck while he sleeps.
by acting out his craziness, Flake hurts the entire country
not just PDJT
There must be something in the water in AZ that produces these douchebags.
'Nuff said.
No.
It is the Arizona Media, and the Arizona colleges and Universities.
The sorry ass fool is gone in 26 days.
A man who helped run Saint Jeffys Phoenix office just got hired by my company, its a BS community relations job.
I think Im going to VOMIT.
Flake was a product of the GOP Senate leadership.
Try that as a Democrat and you would be out on your can in a week.
Flake is just one of many GOP Senators who thought they were more important than doing their job.
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