Politicians who win campaigns, no matter how dirty, will almost always kiss and make up with their political opponents in their election-night speeches.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), of course, is not your average politician.
After defeating a Chamber of Commerce-backed candidate in his primary by 14 percentage points on Tuesday, the Ron Paul ally set about settling a few scores.
Former congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who backed challenger Brian Ellis? "You are a disgrace. And I'm glad we could hand you one more loss before you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance." (Hoekstra lost the state's 2012 Senate race -- and in the 2010 gubernatorial primary.)
Ellis? "You owe my family and this community an apology for your disgusting, despicable smear campaign. You had the audacity to try and call me today after running a campaign that was called the nastiest in the country. I ran for office to stop people like you."
Ellis in one ad referred to a quote from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who labeled Amash "Al Qaeda's best friend in Congress."
In a later TV interview, Amash said: "I’m an Arab-American, and he has the audacity to say I’m al-Qaeda’s best friend in Congress? That’s pretty disgusting."
Here's the video of Amash's speech, courtesy of WXMI-TV. The operative part starts about halfway in.
Lowery reported from Michigan.
