GOP Senator Asks For Investigation Of Harry Reid And Barbara After They Target His Past With Prostitution

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is calling for an ethics investigation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), in response to Senate Democrats floating a bill that would block him from getting health benefits because of his prostitution scandal.

In his call for an investigation, Vitter accuses Reid and Boxer, the chair of the Ethics Committee, of an attempt to influence his vote by "intimidation and bribery."

The fight between Vitter and Senate Democrats has gotten nasty and personal over the past two days. Vitter is pushing an amendment that would prevent the federal government from making payments toward health insurance that members of Congress buy in the Obamacare exchanges. His amendment delayed a vote on a bipartisan, unrelated energy bill.

In response, Democrats have floated an amendment of their own that is aimed squarely at Vitter if he keeps pushing for a vote on his amendment.

It would deny lawmakers will be denied those government contributions if the Ethics Committee determines that there is "probable cause" they solicited prostitutes. That would resurrect the 2007 "D.C. Madam" scandal, the escort service of which Vitter was identified as a client.

A Senate aide passed along the key text of the amendment:

(iv) LIMITATION. -- No employee contribution payable under section 8906 of title 5, United States Code, with respect to health insurance coverage under this subparagraph, may be provided on behalf of an individual who the relevant congressional ethics panel has probable cause to determine has engaged in the solicitation of prostitution.

"Such an arrangement, whereby the Senate Majority Leader and the Chair of this Committee are threatening to take away their colleagues' healthcare coverage subsidy if they do not vote a certain way, at worst constitutes bribery and a quid pro quo arrangement, and at best amounts to improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the Senate," Vitter said in his letter to the Ethics Committee.

Vitter wrote that if Boxer has been involved in the plan to introduce the amendment, she should be removed from the Ethics Committee.