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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJeff Flake: The president is on trial. So are my Senate Republican colleagues.
By Jeff Flake
Dec. 20, 2019 at 5:40 p.m. EST
Jeff Flake, a Republican, represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate from 2013 to 2019. He is a resident fellow at Harvard University and a contributor to CBS News.
To my former Senate Republican colleagues,
I dont envy you.
It might not be fair, but none of the successes, achievements and triumphs youve had in public office whatever bills youve passed, hearings youve chaired, constituents you have had the privilege of helping will matter more than your actions in the coming months.
President Trump is on trial. But in a very real sense, so are you. And so is the political party to which we belong.
The latest Trump impeachment updates
As we approach the time when you do your constitutional duty and weigh the evidence arrayed against the president, I urge you to remember who we are when we are at our best. And I ask you to remember yourself at your most idealistic.
We are conservatives. The political impulses that compelled us all to enter public life were defined by sturdy pillars anchored deep in the American story. Chief among these is a realistic view of power and of human nature, and a corresponding and healthy mistrust of concentrated and impervious executive power. Mindful of the base human instincts that we all possess, the founders of our constitutional system designed its very architecture to curb excesses of power.
Those curbs are especially important when the power is wielded by a president who denies reality itself and calls his behavior not what it is, but perfect.
Personally, I have never met anyone whose behavior can be described as perfect, but so often has the president repeated this obvious untruth that it has become a form of dogma in our party. And sure enough, as dogma demands, there are members of our party denying objective reality by repeating the line that the president did nothing wrong. My colleagues, the danger of an untruthful president is compounded when the coequal branch follows that president off the cliff, into the abyss of unreality and untruth.
Call it the founders blind spot: They simply could not have envisioned the Article I branch abetting and enabling such dangerous behavior in the Article II branch. And when we are complicit, we cede our constitutional responsibilities, we forever redefine the relationship between Congress and the White House and we set the most dangerous of precedents.
My simple test for all of us: What if President Barack Obama had engaged in precisely the same behavior? I know the answer to that question with certainty, and so do you. You would have understood with striking clarity the threat it posed, and you would have known exactly what to do.
Regarding the articles of impeachment, you could reasonably conclude that the presidents actions warrant his removal. You might also determine that the presidents actions do not rise to the constitutional standard required for removal. There is no small amount of moral hazard with each option, but both positions can be defended.
But what is indefensible is echoing House Republicans who say that the president has not done anything wrong. He has.
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It's something - at least it's more than Romney or the other "maybes" have said to date.
madaboutharry
(40,245 posts)Brett Kavanaugh.
Go away Mr. Flake. Its easy for you to talk a big game now.
JDC
(10,146 posts)Besides armchair op-eds.
ChubbyStar
(3,191 posts)Flake.
sacto95834
(393 posts)He no longer has power as a Senator and his is on the outs w/the Republican leadership. Who is he supposed to be speaking to or for?
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)He should reread his own article and then look in the mirror.
Trump ate your lunch and you said thank you,end of story.
OnDoutside
(19,986 posts)Mr. Ected
(9,675 posts)Than any of ours would.
And he speaks of Trump's guilt, and their complicity, and their place in history if they persist in this most egregious attack on our constitution.
It takes all kinds of people, including severely flawed people, to bring down a tyrant intent on converting our democracy into a reality TV dictatorship. While I do not admire Jeff Flake in the least, I am willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with him in bringing down the monster that threatens us all.
ecstatic
(32,786 posts)I need the seconds it took me to read that crap back.
Complete and utter trash. Looks like Flake flaked out. Again.
dweller
(23,700 posts)is this a composition for your next Ethics 101 seminar?
Flako, you remember the women at the elevator during Kavenaugh?
i do ... so i know you for the fake you are
6 years of middling service in the Senate garnered you a lifetime of healthcare, and all of the perks politicians gather for nothing they provide for the citizens of this great nation... are you just jealous of the latest newsprint the Congress is generating while you while away your time in Harvard's musty hours?
your time has come, and gone .. you trod a path where your words plow a narrow, insignificant furrow before you, and in your wake is the abysm we, the People, are plodding our way out from...
you had a chance, dude, you blew it, so STFU
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