Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
It's great to see Jeff Flake following the old folk wisdom with such devotion—you know, the maxim that says, "When you find yourself in a deep hole, keep shooting yourself in the foot repeatedly." On Monday, after a new PPP poll determined that Flake was
the most unpopular sitting senator in the country following his vote against expanding background checks for gun buyers,
he whiffed badly in trying to undermine the pollster's credibility. The problem? PPP's polling had been favorable to him throughout his 2012 election campaign. Oops.
Now, instead of just shutting up and trying to move on, he's gone ahead and taken a page from the annoying right-wing uncle playbook and posted about it on Facebook. Watch Flake try to be all cutely self-deprecating:
Nothing like waking up to a poll saying you're the nation's least popular senator. Given the public's dim view of Congress in general, that probably puts me somewhere just below pond scum.
Now, notwithstanding the polling firm's leftist bent, I would assume that my poll numbers have indeed taken a southerly turn since my vote against the Manchin-Toomey background check proposal. It was a popular amendment, and I voted against it.
Hey, if Flake wants to confirm both that
he's unpopular and that Manchin-Toomey is popular, I've got no problem with that. But just a day ago, PPP was full of it, according to the very same dude. This actually reflects a serious issue that Republicans frequently have with Public Policy Polling: They love to deride it as a "Democrat" firm, but all too often, they find themselves citing PPP's numbers whenever they're favorable to them. And since PPP is an honest broker, that happens a lot.
(By the way, Flake wrote all this as a lead-in to linking this dull, pedestrian op-ed defending Flake's vote because he "made a judgment call, knowing full well that it would tick off both sides." Bqhatevwr.)
So Flake brought this all upon himself by attacking PPP's bona fides—though major props to Tom Jensen, for giving Flake a well-deserved purple nurple. But in the end, nothing changes the fact that Flake has made himself badly unpopular with his vote against background checks, and he's compounded his problem by continuing to call attention to it. Six more years of this and Arizona might just find itself with a new senator.