This would have been even better if he had mentioned “Prince Farming.”
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) used a reference to the ABC reality show “The Bachelor” in order to slam the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for handing out a $4.6 million grant to researchers fighting a disease that plagues garden roses.
In this week’s edition of his “PorkChops” series, which the GOP lawmaker calls “a weekly roasting of egregious federal spending,” Flake highlights the outrageousness of the grant by calling it “the most egregious rose handout since Jake chose Vienna.”
His reference is to “The Bachelor,” a long-running reality program in which a lucky man attempts to “find love” among a group of women, each week handing out roses to the female contestants he wishes to keep around.
During the show’s 14th season, “Bachelor” Jake Pavelka famously (and surprisingly) chose to give his final rose and an engagement ring to former Hooters waitress Vienna Girardi. The pair broke up seemingly instantly.
Flake’s PorkChops post, which he aptly labeled “After the Final Rose,” comes at the perfect time, as season 19 of “The Bachelor” just concluded with Iowa farmer Chris Soules — named “Prince Farming” by the show — handing out his final rose to Whitney Bischoff. The two are still engaged — as far as we know.
The USDA five-year grant criticized by Flake will deliver $4.6 million to researchers “to help gardeners, landscapers, producers, and marketers minimize the effect” of rose rosette disease (RRD) on garden roses, which “form the cornerstone of the multi-billion dollar landscape industry.”
Conveniently, the grant is being matched by industry growers and breeders.
Flake told The Hill that, interestingly (and unbelievably) enough, he is not a fan of “The Bachelor.”
“I’ve obviously heard a lot about it, but I’ve never seen the show,” the lawmaker alleged.
“Fortunately, I was able to turn to a couple of my top advisors for this week’s PorkChops — my wife, Cheryl and my daughter, Alexis,” he added.
The PorkChops series typically makes pop culture references, like those to “House of Cards” and “Sharknado.”
