On Friday, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) voted to advance the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate floor, but have a delay in the final vote until an FBI investigation could be conducted into the claims of sexual misconduct. He earned the ire of the party, the base, and gave new credence to his last name. He’s your typical moderate Republican, going along to appease Democrats because somehow we can get somewhere with these people by doing that. No—he just green lit another weeklong assault on Kavanaugh. And even after the FBI report is submitted, Democrats will ask for more time. Flake has to know that Democrats don’t want Kavanaugh on the Court. The fact that he doesn’t and was allowed to be browbeat by Democrats into accepting this false deal is truly remarkable.
Yet, he wasn’t the only Republican to ask for a delay. Overall, while it’s true that moderates seldom lack a spine in these fights, we have to give a little latitude to our blue state brothers, who are often deep in enemy territory.
Three GOP governors have also called for a delay in the final vote, one of them shouldn’t be a shock to you, and the other has to tread lightly due to a very sensitive subject (via Time):
Three Republican governors called for a delay on voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh so that a more thorough investigation could be completed on allegations of sexual assault.
As California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford testified on Capitol Hill that Kavanaugh held her down, put his hands over her mouth and tried to take off her clothes, Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland all said that the Senate should not rush to vote.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote on Kavanaugh Friday morning in order to set up a vote by the full Senate within days.
On Tuesday, Hogan, who is running for re-election in a blue state, said Ford’s allegations need to be investigated thoroughly.
Kasich is no shocker. He’s anti-Trump. He’s on his way out of the governor’s mansion; he can be a bull in a china closet. Hogan and Baker are from blue states and need to tread lightly. Both are expected to win re-election by wide margins, despite their party affiliation. Both men hold some of the highest approval ratings in the country. Yet, Baker’s son has been accused of sexual misconduct, hence maybe the reason why he also came out in front on this pivot (via WGBH):
On the evening of June 20, in a transmission captured by the website LiveATC.net, JetBlue flight 1354 approached Logan Airport and reported a problem on board.
"Boston police, meet us at the gate at C-34," an unidentified crew member said. "We have a customer that's been groping one of the female passengers, so we need to have the police meet the aircraft at the gate, please."
Two days later, WBZ-TV reported that the alleged groper was Andrew “A.J.” Baker — a son of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. Ever since, a big question has been whether A.J. Baker, who still hasn’t been charged, is being treated impartially by the criminal-justice system.
We still don’t know the situation in that case as well (via Boston Globe):
More than three months after a woman accused Andrew “A.J.” Baker of groping her on a plane, federal officials would not say this week whether they are still pursuing an investigation into Governor Charlie Baker’s adult son.
The governor said in June that US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling’s office was reviewing the assault allegations against his 24-year-old son, who told police he was asleep the “whole time” during the June 20 flight from Washington, D.C., to Boston.
No charges have been filed. But authorities have provided little information since, and Lelling’s office this week would not confirm or deny a probe existed, echoing its earlier public statements. But a Lelling spokeswoman noted that in any investigation, it would not provide a public update if it chose not to pursue charges.
Well, we’ll see how that turns out, but even without these charges, which should be looked into, we shouldn’t have been shocked that blue state GOP governors called for this. Now, with Flake, who said on Friday morning that he would be supporting this nomination, only to stab us in the back later—that’s a different matter entirely.
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