Remember Bob Corker? During the tax cut debate, Corker insisted that he would never, under any circumstances, vote for a bill that increased the deficit. I called bullshit. Over, and over, and over again. What happened? In the first round, Corker voted no on the Republican tax bill. I declared myself wrong! I said that I had found a Republican-- the only Republican-- who actually cared about the deficit, like he said! Then, in the second round of votes, Corker flipped, like the spineless weasel he is. Why? There are some allegations that provisions were added that benefited him financially, but I don't care, for the purposes of this post. The point is that he was full of shit. He doesn't care about the deficit, and never did. I screwed up by questioning that when it looked like he might have been acting in good faith. Bad on me.
Then along came Rachel Mitchell. Before I saw her in action, I made some extremely nasty comments about her based on the expectation that she was hired by a bunch of misogynistic but cowardly old white men to do an Anita Hill job on Ford, which they were too chickenshit to do themselves. After the hearings, I suggested that maybe she was just an idiot who got duped, thinking she was going to be allowed to question both Ford and Kavanaugh, like that was going to happen! Only a worthless, useless idiot would think the GOP would let a real prosecutor publicly question Kavanaugh, but that's better than what I called her before I saw the hearings. I really didn't trust her. Or rather, I couldn't possibly trust anyone hired by Grassley, and she was hired by Grassley. If you work for Trump, that says something about you, and Grassley is a Trump flunky.
Now, though, Mitchell has put out a letter. Ripping Ford. On what basis? According to her notions, nobody who is actually afraid of flying would voluntarily get on a plane. Seriously. (I can think of two people I know off the top of my head). And scarcely a mention of Kavanaugh. Why not? Because he was so obviously lying about so many things that the only way to handle it was to not talk about him. That is, if your goal is to defend Kavanaugh rather than approach it from a good faith perspective. This is why rape victims don't come forward. Scum like Rachel Mitchell. Yeah, she's a prosecutor, but she's a lawyer. Mercenary. Out for blood money. That's it.
I screwed up. I gave Mitchell credit for not being a partisan attack dog. I looked, actively, for good faith. That never goes well in the party of Trump. Mitchell earned her blood money, and it should have been obvious all along that she had no intention of doing otherwise. Why? She was hired by Grassley because Judiciary Republicans were too chickenshit to question Ford themselves, knowing what the optics would have been. She was just their beard. Nice work if you can get it.
And all of this brings me back to Jeff Flake. Flake was the Republican demanding the FBI investigation. Plenty of people are looking for a Republican good guy. It is worth remembering that Bob Corker wasn't the only Republican who said he'd never vote for a tax bill that increased the deficit. Flake said the same thing. Flake was full of shit. Flake didn't even make the gesture of a first-round no vote. He caved immediately. What did Flake get? A "seat at the table" for negotiations on immigration reform. How'd that work out for Jeffy-boy? Right. Jeff Flake is full of shit. He'll cave. He always does. They all do.
This brings me back to Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain, who supposedly stood up to Trump and the party leadership to sink the GOP's healthcare bill. Aside from the fact that McCain is dead, all three of them voted yes on that tax bill, and "skinny repeal," which was what they ostensibly blocked, was included as a provision in that tax bill they supported.
They all cave in the end. Every one of them. And if you think you've found one who is acting in good faith and good conscience, well, what has this person done to stand up to Trump? You think Jeff Flake is making a moral stand? Has he made one of these yet? Cowards don't suddenly grow a backbone at this late stage of life.
I'll throw in the possibility of something new coming out to change things up. Nothing is truly deterministic. There's that police report on the bar brawl, which totally paints "Brett" as a guy who would never be a violent drunk, but my point is that I don't think there is a single member of the Senate GOP who would care about anything. The question isn't, "what could we learn?" The question is, "what could sway a spineless, craven chickenshit like Jeff Flake?" Those are very different questions.