In my opinion, Jeff Flake is a coward!

He just doesn’t like him.

1) McConnell had already said/signaled there would be a floor vote on Kavanaugh regardless of the committee vote; 2) Flake is a puke in addition to being a coward and wants to preserve whatever future he has in wingnut welfare (lobbyist, think tank, potential future candidate when the Rs recover their senses enough to head back into the closet, whatever);BUT 3) he bought us a week and an investigation. I am grateful for that. Those brave women who cornered him in the elevator earned the vast majority of it, but he can have a dab.

the right thing in the end.

I hate to disagree with your point, but that horse ass would have gone through with his vote.

Flake has long time "fiscal conservative" street cred and he has no plans to burn his bridges with that crowd, who have suddenly been shoved under the bus by this current administration, in favor of the "culture warriors" - the racists/sexists/xenophobes. But he knows that his faction will rise again at some point.

The only difference between him and some others is that he will "attack" his own if they fail to meet his criteria.

I recall watching him regularly when he was in the House. He would literally show up at every open floor debate about fiscal issues & budget/appropriations bills, complete with a line item list in hand of "pork barrel" (earmark) requests, that had been inserted into the various bills by both Democrats AND Republicans. And he would call out his own Republicans rather vociferously, which was surprising to me. So in that case, he was consistent.

Sure he couldn't have stood up and said NO. Let's play that out. Saturday morning, as promised, Mitch takes up the nomination on the Senate floor (as promised) and they move to floor vote Tuesday for a candidate that has not been recommended out of committee. We don't know any more than we know today and we're depending on a combination of Collins Murkowski and Manchin to give us two no votes. Key here is "with no additional information vs. today". This route guarantees Kav gets seated by Friday.

Instead, Flake gives the WH a little of they want - a positive recommendation out of committee, and extracts something in return - a one week cooling off period with the FBI on the case (an action all republicans have been resisting for 2 weeks). Now, all three soft votes can stand up and support the "let's learn more" route and all of a sudden, the conversation is controlled by the middle with 3 republicans and 2 democrats (including Coons). This route has an opportunity, not a guarantee, just an opportunity for Kav to get bounced. The opportunity didn't exist before his actions and wouldn't exist with a simple no vote.

Sure - Flake could have simply voted his mind and thumbed his nose at Trump. Might have felt good and we might have liked it more to see him tilt at that windmill. But its the institutional version of voting for Stein or Johnson to send the DNC a message - a wasted vote.

Insead - he leveraged his vote, attracted some allies from both sides, and changed the course...not of the entire war but certainly of the battle. He bought time with this move and time has been the most precious commodity to the republicans as they tried to rush this. So now there's time for the FBI to investigate, there's time for media to keep digging, and there's time for the public to continue to he heard.

IMHO, this isn't how government works now, it's how government always worked until now. Some group in the ideological center willing to compromise a little on each side moves the peanut forward. We may not like it but unless we're ready to spin up a constitutional convention to change the whole darn system, it's what we've got.

So, Flake isn't a hero and he's certainly got more than his fair share of talk and no action over the years. But he might be the hero of this battle so, for that, I'm willing to accept and appreciate his role in this round.

I heard him comment last night, that he planned to vote for Kavanaugh anyway in the end. "He's a conservative, I'm a conservative." If the investigations turns up more incriminating evidence, will it influence his view and vote? Who knows.

Another typical Repub weasel.