The only thing I don’t like about Flake’s position is his waffling about whether or not a primary threat would make him change his mind. Other than that, I’ve developed a bit more respect for him. Given the ® after his name, I expected to read that he was one more hardcore nut job; it seems that he does actually have some vestiges of a conscience. More importantly, he seems to understand what compromise means. Finally, a Republican who actually wants to do his job! Good luck to him.
Let’s be clear: he’s a different kind of right wing loon than Trump, but he’s still a right winger.
To me, that is uncharacteristic honesty in a politician. No one really knows what they would do in a particular situation until they are actually faced with it. When he says he’d like to think he wouldn’t cave but that he just doesn’t know what would happen, that’s as honest an assessment as one can make. It’s a hell of a lot more honest than Trump’s claim that he would have taken out Osama Bin Laden before 9/11, which is pure braggadocio.
The article does not mention that Flake bucked the entire GOP on the Administration’s opening up normal Diplomatic Relations with Cuba. I am not ready to declare him a hero, but in today’s GOP, he is an anomaly of pragmatism. If TPM is going to write a piece like this, I would like to see it include Flake’s position on the NRA’s issues, whether he signed the Tom Cotton-Bill Kristol Letter to the Ayatollahs, what his positions and votes were as a congressman on the ACA, and wether or not he joined in on the Arizona and individual State immigration laws that the GOP launched to try and blame incoming President Obama for the long standing historic presence of illegal immigrants. I also would like to know what his public positions have been regarding LGBT rights and voter suppression.
Flake is not running for reelection.
In voting for Trump, Republicans are casting a vote for government to monitor everyone’s religious beliefs.
“I believe that Jeff Flake is one of the most honest people I have known and a principled individual and he always does what he thinks is best,” McCain told TPM.
Unlike, say, me, McCain added.
He’s probably in the same boat as Collins and Sasse. I fully expect all three of them to get teabagged in their next primaries.
It’s nice to know some Republicans have a backbone, not enough but it’s a start.
I’m sure he will be. They tried to teabag McCain in 2010 and again this year; McCain won going away both times.
Is braggadocio a fancy word for BS??? Because THAT’S what Trump deals in.
We will be putting up five of our “Mormons Oppose Trump” signs in Jeff Flake’s hometown of Snowflake this week. They capture some of Mitt Romney’s devastating criticisms of Trump. One favorite is, “Dishonesty is Trump’s Hallmark.” Another, “Trump is a Phony and a Fraud.”
If the LDS community does not vote for Trump in Arizona, then Hillary wins the state and the presidency.
If you would like to help.
Our website is: www.MormonsOpposeTrump.org
and our Facebook is
By throwing his lot in with The Worst Candidate Ever, he has shown himself to be a bigot, a coward and frankly, deplorable. Which is what I thought of him in the first place. No respect.
As he readily acknowledged. Point?
Of course they’re still pretending they just have no idea at all how this could have happened to such a fine, upstanding party. Perhaps he should ask war hero extraordinaire McCain about his VP pick and what that meant.
You seem to have confused Jeff Flake with John McCain.
Don’t agree with Senator Flake on just about everything, but he does seem to have principles. Something few elected officials have.
I’ll give Flake double credit, not only for his current stance but also for acknowledging the uncertainty of how he might have behaved differently had he been running this year. Reading his words carefully suggests he has some standards that he hopes he is up to, but he recognizes his humanity and the uncertainty and, yes, weakness that sometimes comes with that.
I’m an old guy now and have often reflected on how I might have behaved in threatening circumstances that others faced, some courageously and some not. And I too hope I might have done the good and courageous thing, but acknowledge my humanity and thus uncertainty. Such questions are made more complex by different types of threats. An immediate (and short-term) physical threat requiring physical courage and a sometimes unthinking response differs from more subtle, longer-term moral dangers. And responding in an honorable manner requires a different type of courage.
Those relatively few who hid and protected Jews from Nazis prior to and during WWII faced threats not only to themselves, but to their families. As such, their choices may have been even more agonizing, yet many of their stories are matter-of-fact. And, in effect, they had to re-make their decisions every day. And, because of the dangers, they made those decisions in an lonely manner, not only not wishing for acknowledgement, but fearing that as well. One wonders about how many were caught and never known, much less acknowledged.
In reflecting on such matter-of-fact courage, I know how I would hope to act, but I can’t guarantee it. I am uncertain. And, so it seems with Sen. Flake.
I disagree with Flake on many things, but his actions this year suggest he has an honorable core and a clear mind about his own humanity.
Really, it might be better said that he is one of the few remaining ®s that want to do their jobs. Times, they are a changin’.