A former New York Times book critic took back her initial praise of Sen. Jeff Flake’s book, which was released last year.
“I’m seriously reconsidering my mostly kind review of ‘Conscience of a Conservative’ by Sen. Jeff Flake, the Republican from Arizona, whose successor, Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, was finally announced last night,” Jennifer Senior wrote in a Times column published Tuesday.
Senior, who is now an opinion columnist for the publication, said she had praised Flake’s book for having “rhetorical power” because he was the first Republican senator to call out President Trump for being a “domestic and international menace.”
“But looking back on it, it didn’t. Jeff Flake’s book couldn’t even convince Jeff Flake,” she wrote in her new column, given that his voting record lines up with Trump’s position 84 percent of the time.
“The truth of the matter is this: If Flake believed, all along, that Trump posed a genuine threat to democracy … then why did he slavishly follow the president’s desires at all? Why did he ever allow ideological ends to justify republic-endangering means?” Senior wrote.
Senior said she feels she wasn’t too kind in her reassessment, but that she mischaracterized the book as a critique of the Trump presidency and state of politics.
“‘Conscience of a Conservative’ was not a cri de coeur, a critique of Trump, an analysis of the sorry state of our politics or an invitation to recommit to Goldwater’s philosophy,” Senior wrote. “It was a relic. It was a bit of quixotica. It was a tragedy.”
Flake tweeted congratulations to his successor in the Arizona Senate, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, but Senior said the standards for the Trump era should not just be “good manners.”
Congratulations to @kyrstensinema on a race well run, and won. It’s been a wonderful honor representing Arizona in the Senate. You’ll be great.
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 13, 2018
Sinema narrowly beat Republican challenger Rep. Martha McSally in last week’s midterm election with 49.7 percent of the vote.
