Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is leaving Congress to run for governor. That can't happen too soon for many of his Republican colleagues who are really over his hobby-horse, one which will never, ever go anywhere:
taking Obamacare coverage away from members and their staff.
One fellow senator calls David Vitter’s years-long crusade to scrap health care subsidies for lawmakers and their staffers “disingenuous.” Another says it’s obviously being done “for political purposes.” […]
And those are just fellow Republicans talking.
Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, Vitter has emerged as one of the most disliked members. The second-term senator's effort to kill the federal health care contribution, worth several thousand dollars to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it. But the two-year drive, his critics say, symbolizes an operating style that Vitter's critics complain is consumed with public relations, even for an ambitious member of Congress: speeding in and out of meetings, railing about issues on the Senate floor but doing little to execute behind the scenes, firing off news releases left and right. In an institution in which the inside game is critical, Vitter doesn't even pretend to bother with it.
A reflection of just how many people are fed up with Vitter is how many are quoted in this article by name—only a few requested anonymity. But Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Richard Burr (R-NC), Susan Collins (R-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and John McCain (R-AZ) were all willing to go on record saying, in essence, give it up already! That's an astounding number of senators turning on another. While the meanest stuff was said by those anonymous senators, all of these members had no problem piling on with their dismay over his Obamacare obsession and the massive amounts of all of their time he's wasted on it.
That's one ass the Senate will be glad to see the end of in 2016.