DownWithTyranny!: Defeated Tea Party Congressman Kerry Bentivolio Is Very Bitter Towards The GOP Establishment

No one can ever accuse me of having ever said anything good about one-term Republican soon-to-be ex-Congressman Kerry Bentivolio, a Michigan teabagger. (Here's proof.) A reindeer farmer and Santa Claus actor tainted with some crooked business dealings, Bentivolio became an accidental congressman when his predecessor, Thaddeus McCotter was busted in an electoral fraud case and was forced to resign from Congress and end his campaign for another term. Bentivolio soon found himself in Congress, where he was out of his depth and unable to cope. He tried aping Justin Amash's principled libertarian opposition to the Establishment but lacked the skills and political talent to even be a successful follower.

The Republican Establishment got behind Michigan foreclosure king David Trott, a self-funder who spent $2.5 million from his own personal wealth against Bentivolio and beat him decisively 42,008 (66.4%) to 21,254 (33.6%). A perfect pick-up opportunity for the Democrats, Steve Israel instead decided to try to help the CIA infiltrate one of their agents into Congress and backed sure-loser Bobby McKenzie, who, of course, lost. The official results are David Trott- 138,229 (56.06%), Bobby McKenzie- 100,665 (40,83) and Libertarian John Tatar- 7,668 (3.11%). Although that adds up to exactly 100%, it doesn't take into account the write-in ballots. And there were write-in ballots. Bentivolio decided to run a quixotic write-in campaign against Trott in the general, claiming Trott staffers kept demonizing him and his family even after he had won the primary.

Basically, he feels that Trott and the GOP establishment stabbed him in the back, have worked for two years to ruin his reputation, and he isn’t going to take it anymore.

He is well aware of his image as “Krazy Kerry,” who has been lampooned as a nutty reindeer farmer and part-time Santa Claus.

In fact, he seems himself as a principled conservative whose first and greatest love is constituent service.

At one point, he put a staff member on the phone line, who told me that the two cardinal rules in his office were “transparency” and “never lie.” He also told me that his reputation for shunning the media was the fault of a former campaign manager who never passed along requests for interviews.

The only bad things Bentivolio had to say were about the GOP establishment.

“They believe you have to be anointed to run for office-- that you are supposed to kiss the ring,” he told me, adding, “That’s not how the founding fathers saw this country.”

I told him that some Republicans saw his effort as sour grape resentment, and he admits that he does feel some of that.

Bentivolio also knows that his write-in effort could well help Democratic nominee Bobby McKenzie, but he feels that when a Republican congressman is doing a good job, he doesn’t deserve to be challenged in his own party’s primary.

Not only did Trott do that, but Bentivolio feels he unfairly smeared his reputation.

When he left some of those attacks up on the internet after the primary, Bentivolio announced he would write his own name in “as a shot across his bow.”

But Trott still didn’t take the offending material down, and meanwhile, Bentivolio’s staff members in Washington started hearing they would be blacklisted from new jobs.

That did it.

Kerry Bentivolio, a career army officer and former teacher, is not a wealthy man.

He doesn’t know what he will do if he doesn’t get reelected, and may be looking at personal bankruptcy.

But he told me he felt he’s done his best in Congress, and has never been afraid of a fight. “There’s something flattering when a guy spends $5 million to beat you,” he said of Trott.

Although no actual numbers for the write-in ballots are available, on Friday the Toledo Blade reported that Bentivolio's low-budget effort ($40,000) failed and they claim that he "appeared to have gotten fewer than 1 percent of the vote, from stalwart supporters who wrote in his name." Bentivolio says the effort was worth doing anyway.

"I was hoping for a miracle, but it was worth making a point," he said. "I owe the Republicans nothing. They did nothing for me. They have this attitude that you can’t just run for office. You are supposed to be anointed by them, that you have to kiss the ring.

"Well, that’s not how the Founding Fathers saw this country."

Mr. Bentivolio was famous for shunning news media during his time in office, He often was painted as flaky and irascible.

However, he called me a week before the election. "I know you may disagree with me,” he said, "but you strike me as fair." He wanted to tell his story.

He has one thing in common with liberals such as independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: Mr. Bentivolio feels that the system is broken, corrupt, and dominated by a moneyed establishment that is happy to destroy anyone it can’t control.

..."[T]he establishment said from the start I was going to be a one-term congressman," Mr. Bentivolio said. "They smeared me, spread lies about my teaching record, started the 'Krazy Kerry' stuff."