As part of Republican “gotcha” moments in the healthcare debate, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) proposed an amendment to force Congress and their staff to buy health insurance through ObamaCare. To his surprise, Democrats welcomed it and it became the Grassley Amendment.
Recently, Republican Senator David Vitter (R-LA) of the hookers and diapers scandal (this is relevant) has been pushing an amendment in an unrelated bill that would keep the federal government from making payments for health insurance that members of Congress buy.
Democrats are responding by “playing the hooker card”, as Politico put it. According to draft legislation obtained by Politico, Senate Democrats are ready to hit Vitter where it hurts. “If Vitter continues to insist on a vote on his proposal, Democrats could counter with one of their own: Lawmakers will be denied those government contributions if there is “probable cause” they solicited prostitutes.”
The legislation was reportedly drafted at the request of several Senate Democrats according to Politico, but will not necessarily be deployed against Vitter. They may be using it to get him to back off his relentless time wasting and pandering to conservatives with ObamaCare obstruction.
Vitter was busted during the 2007 DC Madam sex scandal as a frequent client of prostitutes, one who allegedly enjoyed wearing diapers. Luckily for him, there were no twitpics of him in said diapers and he continues carrying the standard for the Family Values party to this day, even though what he did was illegal.
Republicans have defended Vitter from the outset. From Think Progress:
“My attitude is he’s doing everything he can to rectify the mistake he made and should be allowed to do so,” (Senator Orrin (R-UT)) Hatch said. “I’m a great believer in redemption.”
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), offered only praise: “David Vitter is one of the most capable guys here. He was fabulous in the immigration debate. I think his constituents will respect that.”
So the Republican argument for not condemning Vitter let alone forcing Vitter to resign is that he is good at his job (so was Eliot Spitzer) and he has been redeemed (subjective opinion, unverifiable).
Democrats are signaling that they are done tolerating Republican ObamaCare obstruction. If Republicans want to continue refusing to do the people’s work and refusing to admit that ObamaCare is not only the law of the land but was upheld by a very conservative Supreme Court, then Democrats are going to fight back and it won’t be pretty.
See, today everyone will be talking about David Vitter and his diaper penchant and whether or not, especially in light of Weiner and Spitzer’s fate, he should even be in the Senate. And the Democrats haven’t even proposed this amendment yet. All they did was draft it.
Speak softly and carry a big stick indeed. Republicans, you might want to meet the new Democrats.
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