Sen. Jeff Flake Announces Retirement in Scorching Speech Against Trump – By Jim Newell (slate.com) / Oct 24 2017
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who made the politically unwise but morally sound decision to write a book challenging his party’s president earlier this year, announced on Tuesday that he will not seek a second term. And he is not going out quietly.
“We have fooled ourselves long enough that a pivot to governing is just around the corner,” Flake said in a searing speech on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. He spoke of the “reckless” leadership in the White House. “When such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it’s something else: a danger to our democracy.”
Though Flake had been a reliable Republican vote for President Trump’s agenda, his criticism of the president collapsed what were already middling numbers among Arizona Republicans. He was facing a serious uphill climb to win his primary election next year, against former state Sen. Kelli Ward or a to-be-determined, Trump-backed challenger.
Flake dispensed with the usual excuses about wanting to spend more time with his family, and admitted that in order to win the primary, he would have to become a hard-right, bullying caricature.
“Here’s the bottom line: The path that I would have to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I’m not willing to take, and that I can’t in good conscience take,” Flake told the Arizona Republic. “It would require me to believe in positions I don’t hold on such issues as trade and immigration and it would require me to condone behavior that I cannot condone.”
PB/TK – This really pisses me off. Sen Flake is a Conservative, yet knew how to compromise when needed and his retirement speech today was nothing more then a surrender to the current volatile political climate. He was afraid to run for a second term knowing the possibility of losing was great and tired of fearing the morning twitterstorm by POTUS Donnie. Sen Flake, if you are so disgusted by the current political climate of both Parties, might I suggest dropping the ‘R’ and all connections to become a true force against today’s stupidity. But nope, you coward and shrug away giving POTUS yet another reason to gloat
