OK I am pulling this comment from another forum from a seemingly bright person.
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For those of you who don’t quite understand what happened in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Kavanaugh vote…. let me explain.
Jeff Flake, a Republican, was the weakest link on the entire committee, and wanted to kind of “ride the middle ground”. He needed a way to vote YES to advance Kavanaugh out of committee and to the floor of the full senate for his final confirmation vote. He needed to be able to vote yes, while being seen as “middle of the road” and making it something that it really “pained” him to do.
He basically just bamboozled the Senate Democrats. They were pushing him HARD to vote no, because if they flip just ONE Republican on the committee, Kavanaugh doesn’t go on. He made a deal with them, saying, “I will vote yes, but it will be contingent on the FBI conducting an investigation, okay?”
Democrats were like “Woah, you’re gonna require an FBI investigation for your yes vote? Okay, we’ll get on board with that!” So Flake came in to that committee room and asked to make a statement. Grassley allowed him to make the statement that he thinks the FBI should take AT MOST a week to investigate. Democrats, thinking that the vote was now a CONTINGENT vote, where the full senate would be BOUND by the committee’s decision to have an FBI investigation, were confused.
In the confusion, Grassley asked the clerk to “call the roll” (a fancy term for taking a vote)… and while the Democrats were FRANTICALLY trying to figure out what the hell was going on, trying to interrupt, trying to ask questions, the clerk quickly called out each Senator’s name to record their votes. 11 GOP voted yes… and while still confused by what’s happened, the Democrats all voted no on the candidate.
Feinstein commented that she thought that the vote was basically “We are recommending this man to the full senate, but only if the FBI does a 1 week investigation”… she basically said as much…
But here’s the dealio… the Senate Judiciary Committee does not have any authority to recommend an appointment with conditions. The vote was ONLY to pass the candidate to the full senate UNCONDITIONALLY…
Now, will Flake vote yes on the full senate vote? Not without that 1 week FBI investigation, I would presume… but here’s the catch, and how Flake is operating to cover his ass.
The FBI gets a referral for these investigations. WITHIN THE HOUR, the FBI could come back and respond just like this:
“The FBI has no jurisdiction on these claims, and even if we did, there is not enough information or evidence to give us the probable cause to seek any warrants. We deem this request to be improper and invalid, and we hereby return the matter to the US Senate having concluded our ‘investigation’.”
Boom, the FBI requirement is fulfilled… Flake has his “cover” he needs to vote yes… and we can vote on Kavanaugh TOMORROW!
They don’t have the votes in the Senate.
I'm not ready to say "Flake, you magnificent b---", but I will say "Grassley, you wise old owl". This will turn out fine.
That’s what I thought happened.
Grassley is a wily one. He took advantage of the confusion to vote it out of committee.
While I agree with the essence of your #507, I think the "he" above should refer to Grassley. He was certainly talking faster than Feinstein can think.
Am willing to bet Flake was more focused on moving it to the senate where his vote was more valuable.
Want to find time to research the "2 Hour" rule. Does Feinstein have any basis for reconsideration of the vote? Can the chair verify there is a quorum simply by counting left and right or is a call necessary?
https://apnews.com/6cd0cc2774d94da68fc9b92b6f2dae42
2 p.m.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted along party lines to advance Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to the Senate floor.
The 11-10 vote Friday came just one day after Republicans heard testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. Kavanaugh denied the accusation.
At the last minute, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, said he could not promise to vote for Kavanaugh on the Senate floor and called for a delay of up to a week for a further investigation.
Republicans voted to move ahead with Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley noted the timing on Senate vote was up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Yes, indeed. Plus an FBI agent was on the news the other day and stated that no federal crime had been committed. He went on and listed several reasons why they have no basis to investigate this issue.
Very unfortunately, all the power is in the hands of Flake, Collins, and Murkowski. They don't have to vote against Kavanaugh -- all they have to do is vote against any motion to invoke cloture - end the filibuster - and move to a vote. They can delay a vote as long as they want once it gets to the full Senate. And regardless of what was said by Grassley there at the end, they're going to have the power to drag this out as long as they want.
Best case is that at least two of them are satisfied with a more or less perfunctory FBI "investigation", and there is a vote in a week or so.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.
The F.I.B. is in the hands of Democrat operatives.
So they’ll go for a 6 year investigation as necessary.
Who will stop them …. Rosenstein?
Why would Flake need "cover"? He is not up for re-election, and if he was, he'd have to vote "yes" to be re-elected. The dude's a Judas. He'll do everything he can to stick it to Trump. The games he is playing "will he or won't he?" are just to make it all that more enjoyable when he buggers the nomination.
Well the FBI ‘could’ respond that way however I have no reason to believe they would since they are clearly corrupt and still have BO and Hillary people in place within the FBI. Also the FBI could get warrants to go thru Kavenoughs house, office etc. Would he subject his family to such? Under these circumstances I wouldn’t!
ping