Prior to the 2010 primary, I was told by several FReepers (including some whose opinion I had long respected and still respect) that Justin Amash (who, BTW, started running for office almost immediately after graduating from law school) was the true conservative choice in MI-03, since he had cast fewer disappointing votes in his one-year-and-change in the state house than Bill Hardiman (a Vietnam War veteran and businessman who didn’t run for office until he was 45 and served as mayor of Kentwood before running for the state legislature) had cast over his 7+ years in the state senate. I was nowhere close to convinced, but MI-03 Republicans were, and Amash’s connections with the De Vos family money carried him to victory.
Amash has turned out to be a turd sandwich, casting ridiculous, Ron-Paul-type votes to “make a point,” thus giving liberal Democrats ammunition to claim that “even conservative Justin Amash agrees with us” or “the bill was so extreme that even Republican Justin Amasjh voted against it.” I hope that he doesn’t cap off his embarrassing first term by finding a way to lose one of the most Republican districts in Michigan.
I remember the Amash boosters, and also the those that warned he was Paultarded.
We see now who was right.
I also recall that despite most of FR hating Ron Paul that his son was favored for the Senate nomination by more freepers than not because the eeeeeeeevil Mitch McConnell was for Trey Grayson and because Jr. Paul was a self-crowned Prince of the Tea Party.
More than a few less than ideal candidates won primaries in 2010 by self-proclaiming that they were the mostest tea partiest candidate.