Bill O’Brien blasts Kelly Ayotte — again
Former House Speaker Bill O'Brien lashed out at Sen. Kelly Ayotte today for her vote to confirm Loretta Lynch as the next United States Attorney General. In a stinging Facebook post, O’Brien wrote “it is clear” that Lynch “will promote Obama’s lawlessness.”
In addition to the Lynch vote, O’Brien cited a “series of disappointments on significant issues” from Ayotte, including “budget votes to fund Obamacare, debt ceiling extensions [and] caving on immigration.”
“What is the difference between having a Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte in the Senate?” O’Brien asked. “The only practical dissimilarity I can see is that Sen. Ayotte shows up at meetings of Republican groups and expects to get Republican votes in return,” he answered.
It was just two weeks ago that O’Brien sharply criticized Ayotte following the arrest of Ayotte’s aide, Dave Wihby, in a prostitution sting. “Ayotte owns this one,” he wrote. In a message explaining his criticism, O’Brien accused Ayotte of supporting “those who would perpetuate” human sex trafficking.
That attack was widely seen as payback for Ayotte’s endorsement of O’Brien’s Republican opponent in last year’s contest for House speaker, which O’Brien referenced in his message.
O’Brien’s repeated criticism led some of his state house supporters to encourage the former speaker to challenge Ayotte in a primary. “We need to get someone to run against her,” suggested Rep. Ralph Boehm (R-Litchfield). “O'Brien for US Senate,” answered Rep. Daniel Tamburello (R-Londonderry).
Fuhgeddaboudit, says Ed Mosca, House Legal Counsel under then-Speaker O’Brien. “Conservatives who believe they can take out Kelly Ayotte in a primary are kidding themselves,” he blogged. “They couldn’t defeat Scott Brown and Ayotte would be in a much stronger position in a primary than Brown was.”