Conservative group to McConnell: Press health law repeal or resign as leader

A conservative group dedicated to the repeal of President Obama's healthcare reform law said Thursday that Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should resign his leadership post if he's not willing to press for a repeal vote in the Senate.

The Hill reported Thursday that McConnell told his conference this week that he does not want to vote again on repealing the law until after the November elections. In response, the conservative Restore America's Voice Foundation said it would "unleash" its 2.3 million activists to call for McConnell's resignation if he doesn't retract his comments.

"Senator McConnell must disavow the statement attributed to him today in The Hill, suggesting that he does not have the will or the backbone to force a floor vote by the United States Senate to repeal ObamaCare," foundation Chairman Ken Hoagland said in a statement. "If this alleged statement is true and Senator McConnell refuses to retract it, he is going against the will of the American people and the repeal they have demanded since the day this monstrous law was rammed through Congress."

Hoagland is also chairman of the foundation's RepealItNow.org project, which delivered 1.6 million petitions to Congress last October demanding further votes to repeal the law. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a spokesman for RepealItNow.org. The Hill has reached out to Huckabee to see if he also thinks McConnell should resign but has not yet heard back.

All 47 Republican senators voted to repeal the law last February. At the time, McConnell said "this fight isn't over" and vowed to seek additional votes for repeal.

This week, however, he told his conference that lawmakers were all on record on where they stood and that a new vote wouldn't accomplish anything. Instead, he said Republicans should focus their efforts on gas prices and the economy.

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