La rébellion de Jeff Flake

Jeff Flake s'exprime haut et fort contre les façons de faire de l'administration Trump depuis le début, mais lorsque je venais le temps de joindre la parole aux actes il a toujours été fidèles aux orientations de son parti. Hier il a causé la surprise en affirmant que son vote sur la nomination de Brett Kavanaugh était lié à une enquête sur les allégations dont le candidat de Donald Trump est l'objet. En raison de leur faible majorité (51 vs 49), si les Républicains perdaient le vote de Flake un vote majoritaire était loin d'être acquis puisque qu'on ne pouvait se permettre plus de deux sénateurs et d'autres sénateurs républicains avaient fait part de leur doute.

 "Four senators undecided on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination gathered Thursday night for a quiet chat with earth-shaking consequences. The topic: How to handle sexual assault allegations against the judge without embarrassing their chamber.?? In Susan Collins' third-floor office in the Capitol, she and her Republican colleagues Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia — agreed they had the power to make or break Kavanaugh. And without settling on precise details, they decided to use their leverage to insist on a process that would allow them to reach a comfort level with Kavanaugh, rather than to kill his Supreme Court nomination outright, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

 What resulted on Friday afternoon threw Washington into chaos and guaranteed another week of uncertainty and suspense surrounding Kavanaugh's confirmation. Just hours after Flake endorsed Kavanaugh and seemed to put him on a path to the high court, the Arizonan said he first wanted a week-long FBI investigation into Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that the judge assaulted her. It was a victory for Democrats who'd been demanding such a probe, to no avail, and promises to define the retiring Flake's legacy as someone who refused to let Kavanaugh get a vote while under a cloud of doubt."

  https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/28/jeff-flake-brett-kavanaugh-backstory-853839