Everything was going was just fine for Republicans in Michigan's 11th District until their congressman decided to run for president.
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a bald, pasty, self-deprecating conservative with a monotone voice and a soft spot for economic protectionism, entered the presidential race in July and left two months later after receiving 35 votes at the Ames Straw Poll and one very bad case of midlife crisis. He coped by pouring his energies into writing a sitcom about his life that costarred an Asian sidekick whose catchphrase is "I'm Thai!" Thus distracted, McCotter failed to collect enough valid signatures to appear on the primary ballot, came under investigation for fraud, and in early June, citing a litany of "calumnies, indignities, and deceits," abruptly resigned.
The ensuing vacuum has turned an otherwise anonymous House race into one of the oddest—and most vicious—GOP primaries of 2012. With the August 7th primary four days away, the only Republican on the ballot is Kerry Bentivolio, a reindeer rancher, Santa impersonator, and political novice who once starred in a low-budget movie suggesting that 9/11 was an inside job. A second candidate, Nancy Cassis, is spending $200,000 of her own money on a scorched-earth write-in campaign ("Nothing Fancy, Write-In Nancy"). And in just the last week, Liberty for All, a pro-Ron Paul super-PAC financed by a 21-year-old college kid from Texas, has injected hundreds of thousands into the race with an eye toward tipping the scales.
