Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., has voted to advance the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he has a condition. He wants the Senate to delay a final confirmation vote so that the FBI can investigate the allegations of sexual assault lodged against Kavanaugh.
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“I would only be comfortable moving on the floor until the FBI has done more investigation than it has done already,” Flake adding later that “it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week.”
This is at once a threat and an obvious surrender. The threat is that Flake will vote against the nomination if President Trump does not order an investigation. The surrender is that Flake has given Democrats another opportunity to complain that a week is not enough time.
Progressive politicos are already bellyaching that a week is too short. “Why should an FBI investigation of a nominee for a lifetime appointment be limited to one week?” asked ThinkProgress editor-in-chief Jeff Legum — perhaps the most predictable tweet of all time. Soon, Senate Democrats will be saying something similar.
Democrats have objected and delayed at every turn in hopes of keeping Kavanaugh unconfirmed until Election Day. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, after all, waited more than six weeks before even bringing the first allegations to light. The California Democrat wants the public to believe she waited out of concern for the privacy of the alleged victim, Christine Blasey Ford. The timing has all the hallmarks of an ambush, though. The allegations came at the last moment to make the greatest political impact possible.
Popular opinion over Kavanaugh has already dipped, and another delay gives Democrats more opportunities to snipe at the nominee and to knock Republicans as the midterms come closer and closer. Flake, it seems, just steered his party straight into an ambush.
