Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid Reminisce About David Vitter"s Prostitution Scandal

Republican Sen. David Vitter won’t stop bashing Obamacare on the Senate floor this week, and that’s annoyed top Democrats Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid. Vitter demanded a vote on his Obamacare amendment to an unrelated energy and efficiency bill. It’s too bad for Vitter that Reid and Boxer remember the year 2007 — they reportedly floated legislation right back that’s intended to remind everyone of Vitter’s history with prostitutes.

Vitter’s amendment would have gotten rid of government contributions that help cover federal workers’ health care coverage. According to the National Journal, Reid and Boxer floated legislation that “would ban senators from getting government contributions for their health insurance costs if there is ‘probable cause’ they solicited prostitutes.” In 2007, Vitter got embarrassingly caught up in the “D.C. Madam” scandal when his phone number surfaced during an investigation of a D.C. prostitution ring. He addressed the issue by saying he committed a “very serious sin.” 

Vitter told Politico that Reid is acting like an “old-time Vegas mafia thug.” Vitter’s now calling for an ethics investigation focusing on another draft of Reid and Boxer’s legislation. That draft proposes to deny health insurance coverage to those who vote for Vitter’s Obamacare amendment — Vitter says that’s bribery. As it happens, Boxer is the Chairman of the ethics committee.

Vitter noted that Boxer should be stripped of her membership on the committee if she’s found guilty. Boxer told the National Journal late Friday, ”Senator Vitter has manufactured a bizarre and phony attack that demeans the Senate.” And they say nothing gets done in Congress. 

The Atlantic Wire

Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid Reminisce About David Vitter"s Prostitution Scandal

VIDEO: Sen. David Vitter"s Own 47 Percent Moment

Video taken by YouTube user Fireezdragon (Courtney C Horne)

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) appeared at a town hall in a local library in East Baton Rouge Parish on Thursday, where he made some news by saying he favored a complete shutdown of the US government over funding Obamacare.

Near the end of the event, Vitter responded to a audience member’s criticism of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, with a comment of his own that veered awfully close to Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” moment, when he said at a private fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans were Obama-loving government mooches who wouldn’t take responsibility for their lives.

Here’s what Vitter had to say in response to a questioner’s criticism of Obamacare:

The only thing I’d add is, I wish you were right that nobody wants Obamacare; that’s not true. And in fact, the other side, who absolutely wants it, most of whom are getting something for nothing, came out in droves for the last election and our side sat at home.

Vitter didn’t expand on what he meant by “getting something for nothing”—free health care? Free food? Free Obamaphones?—but the gist was clear enough. By “the other side,” he means Obamacare supporters and also those people, most of them Democrats, who voted for President Obama last November. These Obama backers, Vitter seems to say, are mostly deadbeats living off the government.

There’s been plenty written about how accusing Democrats of being government leeches, as Romney and now Vitter have, isn’t fair or accurate. These kinds of comments also ignore the fact that Republicans rely on the welfare state, too. A recent Bloomberg News analysis found that Romney won 213 of the 254 counties in the United States where the number of food stamp recipients doubled from 2007 to 2011.

In Louisiana alone, 914,196 people receive food stamps. That’s 20 percent of the state’s population. Does Sen. Vitter think all of those people are Obama-loving government mooches?

Political Mojo | Mother Jones

VIDEO: Sen. David Vitter"s Own 47 Percent Moment