the senate votes on legislation that would protect special counsel robert mueller. there were reports today that republicans might be considering allowing a vote on legislation to protect mueller. specifically to get flake's vote for these judicial nominees. but late in the day the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, made clear that, no, he's not going to do that. he's going to continue to block any legislation protecting mueller from coming to the floor even if it costs jeff flake's vote. so that means for thomas farr and all other judicial nominees, it's a no vote from jeff flake. and thomas farr's case that means he can't afford to lose one more republican senator. thomas farr is exactly the kind of nomination, though, that might reasonably pose a problem for republican senator tim scott. republican senators mostly stick together like a bag of iron filings near a strong magnet. but over the summer, tim scott sunk a trump judicial nominee named ryan bounds when it turned out that bounds had written a bunch much racist articles when he was in college.