Republican Representative Justin Amash Spills His Guts on Facebook

After a rapid series of votes on the House floor last September, Representative Justin Amash admitted to his Facebook followers that he’d inadvertently opposed a land use bill he meant to support. “I accidentally voted ‘no’ on the Grijalva of AZ Part B Amendment 4 to H R 5544,” he confessed. “I apparently confused the Grijalva amendment with the Ellison amendment before it.” Explaining his mea culpa, the Republican congressman wrote: “Being accountable means I let you know about every vote even when I goof up.”

Amash was just 30 when Tea Party supporters in Michigan first elected him to the House of Representatives in 2010. Like other right-wing Republicans running that year, he vowed to shrink the government and repeal Obamacare. (He’s among those calling for a government shutdown if the president doesn’t defund the health-care law.) His other big issue was accountability. He said he’d push to make Washington more open to voters. And when he took office, he brought with him a regimen of personal candor beyond that of any other member of Congress.