The Tragedy of Jeff Flake
About six hours after taking to the Senate floor to announce his retirement and deliver a thundering indictment of his party, his president, and his country’s political culture, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake called me from his cell phone. He sounded tired.
“It’s been quite a day,” he said, sighing, and chuckling, and then sighing again.
For Flake, the day had begun with an in the in which he shared the remarkable news that he would not seek reelection next year. “There may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party,” he told the paper. Shortly after the story was published, Flake delivered a righteously indignant speech from the floor of the Senate in which he railed against President
