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Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has been making a lot of noise about opposing Russian asset Donald Trump, giving impassioned floor speeches and making vague threats, but when it comes down to actual action he's been missing. His voting record attests to that: he's with Trump more than 80 percent of the time. But now Flake is missing in action in the Senate, carrying on with the plans he had made for August before Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided the Senate would work through the month instead of recessing as is tradition.
Right now Flake is in Zimbabwe, monitoring that country's presidential election, and making some pointed statements about it. He praised president Emmerson Mnangagwa's "commitment to transparency and universally accepted standards for free and fair elections" following the nearly 40 years of Robert Mugabe's strong-man rule. Mnangagwa, Mugabe's successor is allowing elections for the first time in four decades. "As the ballots are counted and the election results are determined, I urge the Zimbabwean government to remain committed to peaceful, fair, and democratic reform," Flake said.
Which could be Flake's not-so subtle message to Trump, albeit a little big of a passive aggressive one. In fact, what Flake appears to be doing is resisting Trump in absentia. James Hasson, a writer at the Federalist, reports that Flake is deliberately staying away from the Senate and specifically the Judiciary Committee on which he serves, to prevent McConnell from carrying through his August plans—shoving through as many judges as possible. He's also, Hasson says, purposefully tying up the Senate so that Vice President "has to stay in DC to break ties instead of campaign for R candidates."
You have to consider the source here, a far-right Trump supporter who is no fan of Flake. He is railing against Flake for "screwing the GOP caucus (and conservative causes generally, by slowing pace of confirmations)." And he's reporting this all on the word of anonymous Senate staffers who are supposedly unhappy with Flake. If Flake is indeed planning to disappear for the month of August, fine.
If he's doing it to resist Trump, he do more good by doing his resistance in the Senate where his opposition could possibly help by getting Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to put their votes where their mouths are. But again, all this could be a far-righter's attempt to pressure Flake. Which means he's not going to be anyone's savior here, and we have to keep up the pressure on, particularly when it comes to the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
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