Washington • Preferring verbal felicity to practical wisdom, a character in a Benjamin Disraeli novel quipped, “A majority is always the best repartee.” Not really. Open societies that want to remain so should prefer persuasion to raw power, even the power of majorities. Which is why Republican Sen. Jeff Flake served the nation, its highest tribunal, constitutional morality and even his ungrateful party by not being a team player.
A minority of Americans are perpetually infuriated, and the Republican portion of that minority is furious with Flake because he used his leverage in a closely divided Senate to compel the FBI investigation of accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.