When Chris McDaniel suffered an illegitimate loss at the hands of Thad Cochran, he minced no words about his opponent and his campaign.

In Michigan, Congressman Justin Amash won his race, but he let his true feelings about his opponent Brian Ellis be known. He also lashed out at former Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who backed Ellis. You can watch his comments below:

Amash to Brian Ellis: “You owe my family and this community and an apology. You ran a disgusting, despicable smear campaign. You have the audacity to try to call me today after running what was called the nastiest in the country. I ran for office to stop people like you. To stop people who are more interested in themselves than in doing what’s best for their district. Everyday Americans are taking their government back from the crooks and the cronies.”

Amash to Pete Hoekstra: “I want to say to lobbyist Pete Hoekstra: You are a disgrace. And I’m glad if we can hand you one more loss until you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance.”

It’s about time that the good guys call out the establishment for what they are.

Ellis truly did run a disgusting, despicable smear campaign. Despite running on moderate positions, Ellis cherry-picked a handful of “bizarre” votes that Amash took in order to portray him as a liberal.  (It turns out Ellis liked some very bizarre things on his Facebook page, only to have them removed.)

Amash is the only member of Congress to explain publicly every vote he takes, and he usually has very nuanced reasons for voting the way he does, based on his strong views in support Constitutionally limited government.  And he votes the right way; his lifetime FreedomWorks score is 100%.

But Ellis didn’t give a damn. As the Weekly Standard reported:

“He’s got his explanations for why he’s voted, but I don’t really care. I’m a businessman, I look at the bottom line.” He has no use for Amash’s constitutional scruples, remarking, “If something is unconstitutional, we have a court system that looks at that.”

Bravo to Justin Amash for telling the truth! We can no longer afford to pretend the establishment and their candidates have good intentions and run honorable campaigns.

I’m glad to see the editor of this site, Erick Erickson, agrees: