Mike Rogers.JPG

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, in this file photo.

(File)

"[Mike Rogers is] so full of [expletive] to begin with. He tells all these stories about being an FBI agent, and he was in the FBI for two years. Like he was J. Edgar Hoover."

- Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, quoted in the National Journal on April 24, 2013.

In fairness, Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers appears to have spent five years as an FBI agent. But Cox has 13 years as an assistant prosecutor and nearly four more as a private lawyer under his belt versus Rogers’ nearly 20 as a politician. Michigan’s former Attorney General can be forgiven for guessing the G-man stat slightly low while speaking off-the-cuff to a reporter.

The larger fact stands: At least one prominent Michigan Republican was willing to say a year ago that a lot of exaggeration exists between Rogers and reality. That problem came up again a couple of weeks ago when Rogers came out swinging against fellow Michigan Congressman Justin Amash.

"He votes more with the Democrats than with the Republicans, and that's not out of principle, that's out of him branding himself as something different," said Rogers of Amash, according to Politifact.com, the Pulitzer Prize winning political watchdog website.

This was ruled "False" by Politifact. Amash voted 82 percent of the time with fellow Republicans last year, clearly not voting with Democrats "more than Republicans." And the OpenCongress.org vote tracker says no Republican in Congress votes less often with Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi than Amash. At present, there is just a 22 percent similarity between the votes of the actual Pelosi and Congress' anti-Pelosi (Amash).

Which Michigan Republican votes most often with Pelosi?

That would be Mike Rogers, along with two others, voting with Pelosi 28 percent of the time.

Will Rogers now denounce himself for being the Democratic Leader’s favorite Republican in Michigan?

Twice before Amash came to Congress the Club for Growth - a free market fiscal watchdog - compiled voting scorecards measuring pork spending. Rogers scored mediocre each time.

The average Republican checked in with a score of 43 percent on the 2007 'RePork Card'. Sixteen Republicans earned a perfect score of 100 percent against pork votes, including future House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Rogers scored 54 percent.

A $188,000 gift from Congress to the "Lobster Institute" at the University of Maine was number five on Time Magazine's 2008 list of "Outrageous Earmarks." When a vote was presented to kill it, Rogers voted to save it.

Number seven on Time's list was $50,000 for a mule museum in California. Rogers voting to keep the mule money flowing when given a chance to shut it down.

Paul Ryan and 21 others had a perfect 100 percent score on the 2009 RePork Card. The median score for Republicans was 69 percent. Rogers scored just 66 percent.

On the Club for Growth's annually-released Congressional scorecard (a different measure from the irregularly released RePork Card) Amash has a 99 percent lifetime score versus Rogers at 71 percent. Congressman Paul Ryan (85 percent) well outscores Rogers, despite being in charge of the budget writing committee itself.

Like all politicians, Amash is not without faults. An opportunity to challenge the Affordable Care Act was thwarted when he, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and others mistook a matter of political strategy with a matter of principle during last fall's budget showdown.

But the words of Mike Cox and the real record of Mike Rogers demonstrate the voters of West Michigan could do far worse. If Amash rubs Rogers the wrong way, then he’s doing something right.

Ken Braun was a legislative aide for a Republican lawmaker in the Michigan House and worked for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has assisted in a start-up effort to encourage employers to provide economic education to employees, and is currently the director of policy for InformationStation.org. His employer is not responsible for what he says here, on Facebook, or Twitter ... or in Spartan Stadium on game days.