My hat is off to Congressman Jeff Flake on his continued efforts to fight off earmarks!

According to his latest press release, Congressman Flake hit hard on the GOP’s weakness of handing out pork to even its own sacred cows.

The latest comes in a $300,000 package to the University of New England’s George and Barbara Bush’s Cultural Center. Good grief! Shouldn’t the former President’s supporters be setting an example of fiscal responsibility by raising the money from the private sector?

Even the Arizona Republic gave positive ink to Flake’s maverick pursuit to defeat the onging spending binge. (Maybe the editorial board felt they got caught red-handed with their pro-Democratic coverage of S-Chip when they saw our earlier post.)

The Republic even juxtaposed Flake’s work against neighboring CD 5’s Harry Mitchell, who managed to snag $261,000,000 for “transportation projects” including Phoenix’s light rail carrying an earmark of $91,000,000.

While Congressman Flake may not find widespread bi-partisan support to curb the insatiable appetite for political pork, his fight continues to appeal to those of us who see our tax dollars going to Washington only to be poured down some political money pit.

Alexis de Tocqueville was right when he stated over 172 years ago, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”