Ohio Congressman Steven LaTourette has decided against running for reelection because the House of Representatives “no longer encourages the finding of common ground.”
Given that he was elected with the 1995 Gingrich wave, you’d think that LaTourette was some kind of knee-jerk conservative. But according to Wikipedia:
- On Thursday, March 17, 2011 LaTourette became one of only seven Republicans who voted “NO” on a measure introduced in the US House of Representatives to strip all government funding from NPR. (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll192.xml)
- In a meeting with transit advocates, LaTourette disparaged fellow legislators, referring to them as “knuckledraggers that came in in the last election that hate taxes.” (http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/03/16/rep-latourette-tells-transit-advocates-to-ask-congress-for-what-they-need/)
- On June 28, 2012, LaTourette was one of only two Republicans (along with Scott Rigell of Virginia) who voted against a motion to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his handling of the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal. (http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/2/441)
Maybe the current tea party mentality was finally too much for the guy.
Late note: LaTourette is under attack from his right. I searched on /rino LaTourette/
and came up with this: http://www.removerinos.com/latourette.php
Bunches of Repugs are getting hit from their right. Example: http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2012/07/10/news/20local_07-10-12.txt