degenerasian wrote:Steve of phpBB wrote:Joe K wrote:Flake is definitely trying to position himself for a future run for President. But as you pointed out, when push comes to shove, he has backed Trump at every turn. He voted for every single Trump cabinet appointee and also voted to repeal the ACA. Whenever the Trump nightmare ends, and the media begins its inevitable quest to rehabilitate the GOP by promoting "reasonable moderates," hopefully people remember who actually cast votes against Trump and took stances that mattered. Right now, the pickings are pretty damn slim on that front.
Of course Flake is voting along with Trump - the votes are on things Flake agrees with. Flake is a Republican, and pretty much the entire Republican party is behind things like their horrible repeal-and-replace nonsense. They all voted for Sessions and Price and the rest.
If we want to see steps toward getting rid of Trump, it won't be from the people who vote against Trump's initiatives. It'll be from the horrible Republicans like Flake.
I think someone like Flake having an op-ed published is a big deal. This is how it starts - if it is going to happen.
To me, the bigger deal is that Flake admitted in the op-ed that as soon as Obama entered office,
the Republicans joined together to thwart him no matter what he did. I don't know if any Republicans have publicly admitted that before.
What would be the time frame for this? IIRC the 2009 Obama cabinet nominations went much smoother with less obstruction than the 2017 Trump cabinet nominations. The 46+2 Democratic senators are voting as a block right now.
The Dems had a majority of both Houses in 2009, so of course Obama had less obstruction to getting his nominees passed. Outside of several highly unqualified nominees like DeVos and Perry, and horrible choices who are the antithesis of the Agencies they were nominated to head (Sessions, Puzder, Pruitt...), the Dems let the qualified nominees skate without much questioning. For all of Trump's crying of Dem obstructionism, he has nominated a shockingly low number of people, leaving major vacancies. This is a combination of disorganization and failure to understand what they are doing, Bannon's goal to make most agencies weak to "destroy the Administrative State," Trump not trusting anyone except for his family (Kushner can solve the Middle East, end political corruption and win the War on Drugs, all while single-handedly building the Wall), but most crucial, Trump can't find people willing to accept nominations. You'd have to be delusional, insane, or stupid to work in Trump's Admin.
And the 2009 GOP leaders openly admit to meeting just after Obama's Inauguration to formulate a plan to obstruct everything he attempted to do. They openly admitted to putting Party before Country, and McConnell said it at the time in a televised speech. They shut down the government when they couldn't get their way, and fuck, the Merrick Garland block was one of the most despicable acts of partisan politics ever. They flat out stole a S.Ct. seat, even when Obama appointed an impeccable Judge who was Right of Center. Prior to Obama selecting Garland, Lindsey Graham who sits on the Justice Committee, said Garland would be his choice, but Obama would never nominate a Judge so far Right. Then Lindsey refused to hold a hearing to confirm Garland. The level of hypocrisy and just flat out evil gamesmanship from the GOP infuriates me, but they get away with it, and accuse the Dems of doing the same, when the Dems lack the coordination or will to play these games.
An honest to God cult of personality - formed around a failed steak salesman.
-Pruitt
