I was looking at the Committee on the Judiciary Rules, and I found something interesting regarding the quorum rules.

As can be seen in the attached screenshot, and also found at https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/rules, it seems that the rules require that 9 members, including 2 MEMBERS from the minority party, must be present to constitute a quorum for the purposes of transacting business. Thus, in order for the committee to have sent Kavanaugh to a full senate vote, they would have needed at least 2 democrats to be present to constitute a quorum. Without two democrats, the vote could not take place.

Does this explain Flake's actions? Is this why the democrats were caught off guard when they realized that Grassley had called for a vote to send Kavanaugh to a full senate vote?

Remember, a lot of the democrats had stated that they would not attend the committee's vote. If none had showed up, the committee would not have had the 2 minority members necessary to conduct business under the committee's quorum rules.

Was Flake used to push Kavanaugh out of the committee and to a full Senate vote? Did the dems return with expectations that Flake would not vote to send Kavanaugh to a full Senate vote without a further, week long, investigation by the FBI?