What To Do About Flake: Sunday’s Comic

In Opening Campaign Salvo, Flake Book Says GOP Has ‘Lost Its Way’

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake is calling for a return to “traditional conservatism” in a book that says the Republican Party has lost its way, the opening salvo in what could be a tough re-election campaign.

The first-term Senate Republican made the comments Sunday during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he talked about his new book “Conscience of a Conservative.”

The title alludes to the 1960 book of the same name by former Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Arizona, a conservative icon and one of Flake’s political role models. Flake said he and Goldwater both wrote their books in response to a feeling that their party had “lost its way……

A recent poll by Morning Consult pegged Flake as the third-least-popular senator, with approval ratings of 37 percent compared to disapproval ratings of 45 percent. His unfavorable ranking trailed only Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, both of whom had higher approval numbers than Flake…..

Republican Kelli Ward, who ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Sen. John McCain from the right last year, almost immediately announced a primary challenge to Flake. She vows to support Trump and her campaign accuses Flake of “supporting the Clinton crime family by being a vocal member of Never Trump” in the last election and announcing that he would vote for a write-in candidate.

Other possible GOP challengers that have been mentioned include former state party chairman Robert Graham and state Treasurer Jeff DeWit, who served as chief operating officer for Trump’s national campaign…..”