Citing “constant questions” concerning use of taxpayer and campaign funds for private expenditures, Congressman Aaron Schock (R – Downton Abbey) abruptly announced yesterday that he will resign at the end of this month.

According to Schock, the strain of weathering multiple scandals was preventing him from effectively traveling the world serving his constituents in Peoria, Illinois.

Seems legit.

While Schock’s downfall will be officially credited to the recent string of revelations relating to his personal use of campaign and taxpayer funds, along with politically-affiliated real estate deals, that isn’t what we’re going to remember him for. Plenty of politicians play on the margins when it comes to financial disclosures, and still more use their political influence for financial gain.

But not too many politicians flaunt their ill-gotten wealth, power and finely-tuned deltoids as brazenly as Aaron “Haters Gonna Hate” Schock, who never saw a vacation he didn’t want someone else to pay for — and have his “personal photographer” document for the world to see.

And boy, did we see it.

John Aravosis’s coverage of Aaron Schock here at AMERICAblog goes all the way back to 2009, before the then-freshman congressman was even a twinkle in the House Ethics Committee’s eye. Schock’s staunchly conservative record didn’t seem to square with the rest of his persona, which, as John noted, came off as pretty gay. Observations led to questions, which Schock refused to answer. That led to rumors, which eventually made their way across the ideological aisle and into the conservative blogosphere. By now, it’s fairly common knowledge that if Aaron Schock isn’t gay, he’s not very convincing.

If you go through AMERICAblog’s Aaron Schock archives in chronological order, you can relive the saga of the “homophobe boy-toy” for yourself.

And while some argued that it wasn’t fair to cast aspersions on Schock’s sexuality, no one could argue that he didn’t invite the attention. Never one to shy away from all the wrong kinds of coverage, Schock’s positively steamy Instagram account always attracted more buzz than his fiercely conservative politics. Be it via swanky hotels, private jets or, most recently, a replica Presidential podium (which accounted for roughly $5,000 of nearly $80,000 in taxpayer money that he spent on furniture in 2009), Schock spent his career reminding the world how awesome his life — and his abs, and his shoe collection — was.

Schock didn’t just break the rules; he didn’t bother to pretend that he wasn’t breaking them — not only with respect to his finances, but also with respect to his public image. As John A. noted last month:

The semi-nudity was beneath the dignity of his office. And the pictures of the Peoria congressman galavanting around the world in Greece, Italy, Turkey, England, India, China and Brazil — and then skiing in Jackson Hole and surfing in Hawaii — had a braggadocio about them that was asking for trouble.

Schock made himself into a big story by insisting on living a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills lifestyle in a House of Cards town, and in doing so invited more scrutiny than his older, possibly more corrupt counterparts in Washington. As I wrote on Monday:

Sooner or later, Aaron Schock is going down. If the current round of spending revelations and ethics complaints don’t get him, something else will. This is a man who clearly believes that either the rules don’t apply to him, or that they won’t ever catch up to him. But after six years of flagrant opulence, he’s put himself on the radar screen of every political journalist who knows that where there’s smoke there’s a flamer fire.

So no, we aren’t going to remember Aaron Schock for being shady with his finances. We’re going to remember him for being a living, breathing Dolce & Gabbana caricature; a bougie, fatuous, flamboyant narcissist who made his career fighting against basic human rights for gay people while, at the same time, living out one of the gayest lifestyles any member of Congress ever has.

After all, how many people own a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign and these pants?

Shake it off, sailor.