Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake has developed a reputation as someone who is willing to criticize Donald Trump and his party enablers in unusually blunt terms--but not generally willing to use his status as a potential swing vote in a narrowly divided Senate to initiate investigations into administration corruption, protect Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, or achieve any of the other good-governance goals he might be expected to support given his feelings on Trumpism. That was Flake's reputation, at least, before he announced a dramatic effort last Friday to delay Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation vote until the FBI could conduct a weeklong review of sexual assault accusations against the Supreme Court nominee. When it became clear that fellow Trump-skeptic GOP senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski supported Flake's position, the White House almost immediately agreed to order just such an investigation. Over the weekend, though, there was some grinding in the gears. NBC reported, and other outlets confirmed, that the White House had set narrow limits on which individuals the FBI was allowed to contact.