In Michigan Conservative Incumbent Rep. Justin Amash Destroys Establishment Challenger Brian Ellis on Local Talk Show

Michigan business leaders and the Republican establishment are putting money behind Brian Ellis to primary Rep. Justin Amash. They are unfairly blaming Amash for causing the Government shut down and criticizing his attempt to defund Obamacare.

On a local West Michigan radio show, Ellis said he is challenging Rep. Amash because his votes are not conservative enough, citing the Keystone Pipeline, the Paul Ryan budget, etc.

Ellis’ bizarre comment has sparked controversy in this heated race and is getting different reactions throughout the political spectrum.

“He’s the gold standard of principled constitutionalism in Congress,” Dean Clancy told The Hill. Clancy is the vice president of public policy at FreedomWorks and said, “We have heard that the K Street establishment wants to knock him off — and we intend to defend him punch-for-punch.”

The accusation of Amash’s voting record not being conservative conjured up a reaction from Amash himself who called the radio station to defend his record. Listen below.

Conservatives Call For Boehner To Step Down

Fired up by the ousting of Justin Amash, conservatives are calling for John Boehner to be replaced as speaker of the house.

Several Republicans hinted that they won’t vote to re-elect him to run the chamber, and a conservative interest group announced a bid to recruit someone else to run against him for the speakership.

Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, is not in any danger yet — the rebellion shows no signs of reaching beyond a small group of dissatisfied lawmakers — but it could complicate his efforts to strike a deal with President Obama to head off the looming “fiscal cliff” that will send tax rates soaring and will impose automatic spending cuts early next month.

American Majority Action, a conservative interest group, on Monday endorsed Rep. Tom Price and two other Republicans who they said should replace Boehner and his top lieutenants, and has launched a lobbying push to try to sway rank-and-file members to withhold their votes from Boehner.

Price won’t challenge Boehner, a spokesman said.

But lawmakers can vote for anyone when the House members cast ballots Jan. 3 for the next speaker, and if Republican members vote for someone other than Boehner.

Justin Amash Speaks Out:

Thanks to those of you at home for speaking out—not for me, but for yourselves. I'm proud and honored to represent the vast majority of Americans who believe that Members of Congress need to work together to balance the budget.

We will no longer sit silently while political insiders and corporate lobbyists saddle our children and grandchildren with an insurmountable debt. It's time for Republican leadership to show us the vote scorecard they used to determine committee assignments—a scoring system that docks a person for fiscal responsibility.

Only in Washington, DC, is a person taken off of the Budget Committee for wanting to balance the budget.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI): GOP leadership is out of step with America; not committed to re-election of Speaker Boehner

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who was booted From the House Budget Committee, says that a solution to the fiscal cliff must be bipartisan and he is not sure if he supports the re-election of Speaker John Boehner to his leadership position. Rep. Amash heard of his release from the committee from news reports.

Rep. Amash says, “I would again push back on this idea that it is some kind of Tea Party versus moderate versus mainstream theme. People like me are out there are calling for reductions in Pentagon spending, calling for working with the Democrats. And actually if you look at the four people who were removed from the Committee, we’ve been the ones who’ve been willing to work with Democrats on a lot of these tough spending issues.”

When O’Brien asks if he thinks Speaker Boehner should be fired, Rep. Amash responds, “We’re going to see how the next few weeks go. And whether he’s willing to make amends. And put out that scorecard. Let the American people see what he based the decision on.”

Congressman Justin Amash (R) Blast's GOP Leadership

Even though Congressman Justin Amash has yet to recieve official notification of his removal from his leadership poition on the House Committee on the budget, Justin admits that he has been removed.  This is what he wrote on his Facebook account on Tuesday December 4, 2012:

Justin Amash visits his home town of Ionia Michigan to
speak with his constituents.  In this picture Darlene Thompson
and Justin Amash.  Photo Credit: Kenneth Ration              

"Rumor has it that I’ve been removed from the House Committee on the Budget. Remarkably, I still have not received a single call, e-mail, or text from Republican leadership confirming this story. In fact, I wouldn’t even have learned about it if not for the news reports. I look forward to hearing from my party’s leadership about why my principled, conservative voting record offends them. That’s sure to be a lively and entertaining conversation.

In the meantime, I can only speculate as to what specifically would make Republican leadership punish several of its party’s most principled members. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who was kicked off of both Budget and the Committee on Agriculture, voted with me against the 2013 House budget resolution because it does not sufficiently address the federal government’s debt crisis. That was one of only three times during this Congress that I voted against the Chairman’s recommendations in committee. In fact, I voted with the Republican Chairman more than 95% of the time, and I have voted with my party’s leadership more than three-quarters of the time on the House floor.

What message does leadership’s heavy-handedness send? It says that independent thinking won’t be tolerated, not even 5% of the time. It says that voting your conscience won’t be respected. It says that fulfilling your commitment to your constituents to work with both Republicans and Democrats to reduce our debt takes a back seat to the desires of corporate special interests. And, most troubling for our party, it says to the growing number of young believers in liberty that their views are not welcome here.

I’ll miss working with my colleagues on Budget. I don’t relish this situation, but if one thing is clear based on the response from the grassroots, it’s that leadership’s actions will backfire. If they think kicking me off of a committee will lead me to abandon my principles or stifle my bipartisan work toward a balanced budget, I have a message for them: You’re dead wrong."

Sarah Palin and Senator DeMitt Angry at House Leaders Boehner and Cantor

Palin and DeMitt are absolutely correct to criticize “Republican” leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives – who are currently purging fiscal conservatives from positions of influence within the party.

 “We send good conservatives to DC. to fulfill the promises they made to the electorate, and yet when they stay true to their word the permanent political class in their own party punishes them,” Palin told Breitbart. ”This won’t be forgotten come 2014.

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Michigan's Congressman Justin Amash and several other constitutional conservative Republican's were removed from key committees for not supporting House Leadership with the increase in the debt ceiling.

 Good for Palin and DeMitt for speaking up! The GOP leadership deserves to be bashed for attacking its few fiscal conservative members – although Palin and DeMitt got this right, and in the process stumbled upon a larger theme: The tone deafness of the national GOP as it relates to its ongoing electability problem. At a time when “Republicans” need to be elevating the influence and stature of the few GOP elected officials who actually practice what the party preaches, U.S. Speaker John Boehner and “Majority” Leader Eric Cantor are instead doing everything they can to drown out these voices.

 Why? Because the new “Republican” party wants to tax and spend almost as much as Barack Obama and the Democrats …