Yes I am sure they had never expected hiim to last so long; after all he kept saying he was sick. Maybe that too was a protective device, to forestall people thining they had better do him in
Republicans? Well, not so much for disinterested ideology, but for personal ambition through reclaiming senatorial power, or at least power for the elite within the senate; any of those lovers would have felt that authority would be better in their own hands....