At The Intersection Of Flake And Corker

Somehow, I don't think this is the world in which Republicans hoped to find themselves at the end of 2016. With control of the House of Republicans, the Senate, and the White House, these should be the salad days for the Grand Old Party. If you were to read select tweets from the Executive Twit account, "So nice being with Republican Senators today." "Multiple standing ovations!" "Most are great people who want big Tax Cuts and success for U.S." This account was confirmed by Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who told reporters earlier that the caucus gave Trump "three standing ovations." He added, "We appreciated him being there, and we had meatloaf." 
I hear the White House does a pretty swell meatloaf, which might explain at least one of those standing ovations. An impromptu game of "President Says" could account for at least one more. That leaves us with the one that could probably be connected to the buzzers installed in all the senator's seats earlier in the day. Or maybe this really is the group that continues to slavishly follow the master's voice.
Except Bob Corker.
And Jeff Flake. 
Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona was busy this week announcing his retirement from the Senate. He gave a speech that went a little something like this: “We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country — the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve. There are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles,” Flake told his colleagues. “Now is such a time.” There was no report about how many standing ovations Senator Jeff received, but it was apparent that the senators from Arizona as a group are now on the "no meatloaf" list at the White House.
Meanwhile, Senator Bob Corker has also decided not to seek re-election in 2018, allowing him the freedom to express his views about how the current "President" is turning the White House into "an adult daycare center," and the "reality show" hosted by reality show host Donald J. Trump is putting us "on the path to World War Three." 
Between tweets about NFL players kneeling and sycophants standing, the "President" has been tossing around catty comments about how Corker couldn't get elected as dog catcher. Since that position is generally an appointed position, one might expect that it would be filled by someone with the last name of Trump, and they would have to support a constitutional amendment to limit the number of stray dogs allowed into the country. Jeff Flake has experienced a similar flurry of negative attention from the Cheeto in Charge, who has railed on about Flake's dismal poll numbers. This is, of course, without any sense of what the Cheeto's own approval rating is. 
As we meander toward midterm elections next year, there will be a lot more movement left and right by politicians to align themselves with a winner. Will they go red or blue? Or Orange?