The Judicial committee went to a vote, and then something happened. Jeff Flake flaked out, and predicated his floor vote on a FBI investigation. True to form, he was hot boxed by the Democrats on the committee at the last minute and was convinced by them to insist on this as a condition for his vote. It appears that the Democrats thought they pushed him to only vote yes in committee if this was agreed upon. Then he once again flipped and indicated that he would vote to take the issue to the floor of the Senate, but would not vote in the affirmative on the floor if a FBI investigation does not take place.
That was a lot of flaky flip flopping to take place in a few hours. He first said he would vote to confirm, then apparently with Democrat pressure led them to believe that he would not let it get out of the committee unless there was a FBI investigation. Then with his Republican associates looking sternly at him, he flipped again and indicated he would vote the issue to the floor, but would not vote for Judge Kavanaugh on the floor unless an investigation occurred. That is probably a world record for flip flopping!
The Democrats were smart! They knew that the weakest link on the committee was Jeff Flake, and at the last minute they ambushed him into what they thought was an agreement to vote in the negative if a FBI investigation was not initiated. He did disappoint on that level, but he still hurt the process.
Now Graham and McConnell are tracking down Senators Collins and Murkowski to see if they will vote in the affirmative. If so, there will be no FBI investigation and the vote will happen early next week. If not, we will see another delay for the FBI, and what else?
The Democrats are not done with Kavanaugh. Most likely they have more accusers in the wings, to be sprung into the mix during any investigation. If so, they will get what they wanted all along, and push the confirmation to after the mid-terms. They will also hope that this will endear them to the #me too movement, and women will abandon the Republicans and seal for them the Red Wave that they have been praying for. If this happens, we will in effect have a lame duck Presidency, a broken Supreme Court, and the Democrats will have visions of taking over the Presidency in 2020.
Yes, politics is a very dirty game!