In Arizona, a potential showdown between a Republican senator and the Republican president
It’s not surprising to find an Arizona Republican smack in the middle of a poke-in-the-eye dust-up with the powerful. The only surprise these days is that the Republican in question isn’t John McCain.
McCain is in a fight of his own, having cast the final blow against the healthcare plan crafted by his fellow Senate Republicans and President Trump. In his home state, references to that vote prompt a shoulder shrug and a common Arizona refrain: “Just McCain being McCain.”
The newest set-to, however, involves the state’s junior Republican senator, Jeff Flake, a first-termer who may have blasted a big hole in his reelection campaign next year by publishing a book.
And not just any book. A book that swiped its name from one published a generation ago by Arizona’s revered veteran Sen. Barry Goldwater: “Conscience of a Conservative.” A book that vented about the Republican Party and what he calls his colleagues’ “abdication” of their responsibility to stand up against the party’s embattled president.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-flake-20170804-story.html
