=========
=========
Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
=========
=========

Allow me to take advantage of the Redstate brain trust and commenting community for a moment here.

I’m sure many of us (me included) will be pounding the pavement soon, urging people to vote for the GOP ticket.  The subject of the Kavanaugh clusterfark is bound to come up.

If someone were to ask me “why is the GOP allowing this to go on, and descend into farce,” I’d answer (as I have in a previous diary) that Kavanaugh can’t be confirmed without the votes of at least two of these three GOP Senators:  Collins, Flake and Murkowski.  (We only need one of the three if Manchin crosses the aisle, but I think you get my point).  In this diary, I’ll call them “CFM” for short.

From everything I’ve read, CFM were ready to vote for Kavanaugh before Flake went all beta on us on Friday.  Now, we face another week of hysteria.

Flake was quoted yesterday as saying that he balked on Friday because he feared that the Senate was coming apart.  (I’m paraphrasing here).  But he’s just opened us up for another whole week of this.

Does he really think that this week will be calmer?  When the crazies on the other side sense blood?

To review just some of the craziness America saw in the Senate —the institution Jeff Flake cherishes—on Friday:

• A U.S. Senator changed his vote and threw the nation into turmoil because two wacko protesters cornered him in an elevator, on international television, and broke his will and spirit.  BTW, does the U.S. Capitol have a police force?  Do they routinely stand by and let protesters abuse Congressmen/women?
• An official in the American Bar Association releases a letter, in the midst of Friday’s freakfest, making it sounds as if the ABA supported a fresh FBI investigation.  After Flake had caved, we find out—it was fake news.  The enterprising fella released the letter himself, without proper authority from the ABA.  In other words, an ABA official set out to use the “good” name of his organization to game the SCOTUS advise and consent process!
• Reporters tweeted and retweeted a Tweet, supposedly from the Wall Street Journal, that the Arizona prosecutor (Mitchell) who questioned Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh was suddenly pulled from the questioning “because she had determined that he [Kavanaugh] had lied.”  It was a fake.  https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/09/28/journalists-made-a-damaging-kavanaugh-story-go-viral-but-it-was-too-good-to-be-true.
• Three Senators—colleagues of CFM—got doxxed by an IP address assigned to the House of Representatives.

Do CFM want another week of this?  They don’t seem to be doing much to prevent it.

They could tone all this down, if they wanted.  Each could issue a statement like this:

“If the vote on Judge Kavanaugh were held now, knowing what I know now, I would vote to confirm him.  Of course, I will wait for the results of this week’s FBI investigation.  And, if something substantial and credible comes out of it, I will reconsider my position.  I will listen to my colleagues in the floor debate, and I might adjust my position if they convince me to.  Otherwise, I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh and seat him on the Supreme Court.”

That would tamp down any expectations the crazies have, that they can derail this process by getting even crazier.  (To include, God forbid, violent).

But CFM, especially Collins and Murkowski, are staying silent.

By staying silent, they give the crazies hope that they can derail Kavanaugh, IF they ramp up the craziness even more.  They make the crazies think that they could flip one, two or all three if they whip up things more.  After all, two crazy activists in an elevator door broke Jeff Flake.  Going nuts on Capitol Hill worked on Friday.  So, why not ramp it up further?  Who knows what might happen?

Who knows what might happen.  Ask Steve Scalise what might happen.  Ask Rand Paul, whose ribs I hope have healed.

If you create (or enable) the conditions where unstable, prone-to-violence people think they might achieve some of their goals by creating mayhem…then expect people to show up who are prone to mayhem, even violence.  Is that who CFM want to see walking the halls of the Senate office buildings this week?  Waiting outside the houses of Senators, the workplaces of their wives or the schools of their children?  They why are CFM allowing an environment to fester that attracts those sorts of people?

I understand that all Senators should remain as detached and above-the-fray as possible.  But supposedly the Senate is coming apart.  If we are to believe Jeff Flake, the foundations may be shaking.  These are, we are told, not normal times in the U.S. Senate.

Are CFM really willing to let chaos reign on Capitol Hill for one more week?  Those three have the potential to spread a calming blanket over the potentially-tumultuous events of the next few days.  Will they?  If not, why not?

Thoughts?