Montini: Sen. Jeff Flake chickens out

[Ptah]

Sen. Jeff Flake chickened out.

He's not running for reelection.

I don’t care about the reasons or excuses he’s offering up.

He quit.

He caved.

He waved the white flag without putting up a fight.

He cut. He ran.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2017/10/24/sen-jeff-flake-chickens-out/795732001/

[marybourg]

1. I'm not offended.

[RussBLib]

2. looked like he was on the verge of tears

perhaps at the state of the nation

he seems to feel powerless

can you have more influence on the outside rather than on the inside?

[murielm99]

4. My husband thought Flake seemed frightened.

Maybe there are more frightening things going on right now than we realize. For some reason, I am feeling more frightened than usual. And I have been frightened ever since 45 "won!"

[Hortensis]

3. Unable to respect someone pushed to the limits of principles?

He says if he ran he would have to (continue to) betray his principles. Understandable where this opinionist is coming from, but continuing the same old is not the answer.

Flake would have to tell the trumpsters what they want to hear and then try to fulfill his promises.

Or Flake would have to tell trumpsters what they want to hear and then betray their trust.

Either way should be unacceptable. Hopefully whoever does win the Republican primary will have an even tougher battle against the Democratic candidate that this writer believes Flake would have had.

[Scruffy1]

5. I think he was told not to run.

I might sound cynical but then I've learned that you can't be too cynical about the GOP. It sounds like they wanted to ditch him and of course they would have something on him that he wouldn't want known. No, I don't have any evidence, but it's so rare for any Senator to retire before or even during dotage that I find it hard too believe. Besides, he still votes right down the party line, so his explanation makes no sense to me.

[Nitram]

6. Yes, he flaked out. But he gave a good speech, and told the truth about Trump.

But on NPR this morning he said he neither supports impeachment nor invoking the 25th amendment. He's still a clueless right winger.