Flake vs Pelosi

Last night, the TV news show 60 Minutes had a profile of Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake and his noble tilting-at-windmills campaign against earmarks and wasteful government spending. Just for fun, I checked the rating of the National Taxpayers Union, which grades lawmakers for "responsible tax and spending policies." By a large margin, the NTU gives Flake its highest grade of 91 percent.

By contrast, Nancy Pelosi, the next House speaker (now with probability 0.8), gets a grade of 11 percent, close to the bottom of the class.