John Boehner vs Justin Amash-- This Time A Fight To The Death

Back last November we asked if Boehner would be able to defeat independent-minded Republican Justin Amash in a primary. Despite the tea party wing brutally taking out Boehner's main henchman, Eric Cantor, the Chamber of Commerce wing of the GOP is still aiming to assert complete dominance over the Michigan Republican Party-- and Amash is absolutely their top target.

The Establishment Republicans recruited multimillionaire self-funders to bury libertarian and tea Party Republicans across Michigan. Their pathetic Senante candidate, Terri Lynn Land, has already put $1,700,000 of her own personal fortune into her campaign, a full one-third of her campaign war chest. The Establishment shill running against tea party incumbent Kerry Bentivolio, heartless foreclosure attorney David Trott, put $2.4 million of the money he's been paid to evict families from their homes into his campaign to evict a sitting Republican congressman. Paul Mitchell, the state Republican Party Finance Chair and one of three Republicans running for the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Dave Camp, has loaned his campaign $1.9 million. Brian Ellis, the multimillionaire investment broker they've recruited to run against Amash has just put another $400,000 of personal money into his campaign, bringing the personal total to $807,214, nearly 60% of his total raised.

All of them are all trying to buy themselves seats and they're being heavily supported by the GOP Establishment/Chamber of Commerce wing of he Republican Party. Cantor's K Street crowd-- the bribe-weilding Big Business lobbyists-- are all raising money against Amash and Bentivolio, who have a reputation for refusing to take bribes from lobbyists, something House leadership sees as a personal rebuke and a threat to their own power.

Taking a page from the DCCC, the Ellis camp is using Democratic Party talking points against Amash, blaming him for the government shut down! Top Boehner lieutenants in Congress, Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) have poured thousands of dollars into the campaign against Amash. Nunes called Amash "al-Qaida's best friend in the Congress" and is helping Ellis with his grossly misleading anti-Amash messaging.

Last month, following the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce endorsed Ellis, prompting contributions in the anti-Amash push from Dow Chemical, the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Associations, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the powerful Michigan Farm Bureau. This week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been financing Boehner's and McConnell's anti-tea party jihad, endorsed Ellis against Amash as well.

"The U.S. Chamber is proud to endorse Brian Ellis' congressional campaign to represent Michigan's 3rd congressional district. Both candidates in the primary sought our endorsement, and the choice in support of Ellis on pro-growth issues was clear," Chamber national political director Rob Engstrom said in a statement.

One savvy Republican congressional staffer told me that if Boehner can take out Amash his problems inside the caucus are virtually over and that without Amash the opposition to Boehnerland evaporates. "You may hear some residual bleating from Huelskamp," he said, "but if Boehner and his allies can drive Amash out of Congress, the game is up. Guys like Labrador and Massie don't have the balls to take on the leadership without Amash; he's the leader and the instigator... We're going to increase our majority in November and Boehner is going to be in the best position he's ever been in."

This is one of the ads the Club for Growth has been running-- part of a $400,000 campaign to save Amash-- against Ellis: