GOP Sen. Ensign Admits To Affair
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who had been considering a 2012 presidential campaign, has now admitted to an extra-marital affair, and will hold a press conference later today in Nevada to explain it further.
Chris Cillizza reports that the affair took place between December 2007 and August 2008, with a woman who worked for Ensign's re-election campaign and his Battle Born leadership PAC. The Associated Press reports that the woman was married to one of Ensign's Senate staffers.
Ensign had recently travelled to Iowa, to address an audience of conservative activists.
Late Update: Ensign's wife Darlene has also released a statement: "Since we found out last year we have worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation. This has been difficult on both families. With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Wait a minute, he's a republican, are they sure it was with a woman?
June 16, 2009 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL
June 16, 2009 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't funny. It's a serious problem in our society, which thanks to Larry Craig and Mark Foley gets swept under the rug. Lots of women fall for Republicans because they're generally neat, well-groomed and superficially appealing. It's only long afterward that some of these women start to notice that their beloved's out to sea sans mainsail, rudder and anchor -- but for others, well, it's often way too late, because most of these unfortunates are already on the express train to Stepford.
June 16, 2009 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why mention this now?
June 16, 2009 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not jump the gun and automatically assume this was what it looks like from the outside.
Maybe Senator Ensign was looking to consult with someone about family values, and this woman came along. So they're sitting there, and both agree to truly get to the bottom of a key part of a healthy marriage.
June 16, 2009 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
so it will be forgotten by the time he runs for president
June 16, 2009 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ensign held Cornyn's current position in the Republican leadership -- chair of the RSCC -- during the time he was having an affair. If you're a Republican, maybe now you understand a little more why Ensign didn't do such a great job of recruiting Republican Senate candidates last election cycle.
June 16, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
So what? The headline looks like it came from the Enquirer.
June 16, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the "so what:" Ensign has been a vocal opponent of the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry because, to paraphrase him, the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman would be threatened by that. He is a staunch defender of the Defense of Marriage Act.
In other words, he's a class A hypocrite.
June 16, 2009 8:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOLOL!
June 16, 2009 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
When are these Republicans going to learn to keep it in their pants! Oh, it was a woman...I guess that'll be okay then, but we can't be sure until Rush weighs in.
June 16, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
When?
When they start taking abstinence education seriously!
Instead of just foisting that idea on teens and taxpayers.
June 16, 2009 9:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where do these people get the audacity to dare to tell anyone else how to live, and to judge others' behaviors as beneath their own moral superiority? One after the next after the next after the next. It's not limited to Republicans, but they seem to have a special attraction to this.
"I'm the exception, I'm special, the rules are for everyone else".
Within reason I don't care that much what someone does in their personal life. But when they build a career on telling others what is wrong with the way they live, and then it turns out they've been doing far worse in their own lives, I am happy when that hypocrisy blows up their fantasies of power, privilege, and moral superiority.
June 16, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
If it ain't a live boy or a dead woman...just ask Vitter
June 16, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ask my Mayor
June 16, 2009 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
But be sure to reelect me... cause I just LOVE to lord over other people and ADORE having the control... and am totally ENAMORED at the prestige and power.
The woman... oh, she meant nothing to me. I just couldn't control my love, adoration and enamorous feelings... and she happened to be close when they went wild.
June 16, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is clearly another example of how gay marriage is destroying "traditional" (aka "opposite") marriage, isn't it?
Ensign's wife must be wondering why DOMA didn't manage to defend their marriage.
June 16, 2009 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't help thinking of John Edwards right now.
He was a guy who had an affair, but didn't make a political career of telling other people how to live and how to love and whom to love. But he's a democrat, so I guess there's no way he can ever have any shot at political office again.
Vitter, on the other hand, and Ensign, are both Republicans, and they DO make careers of telling the rest of us what we can and can't do and with whom. So, naturally, when these guys have affairs, well, it would be mean and unseemly to hound them out of public life, wouldn't it? They SAID they were sorry; they SAID they asked the Lord forgiveness. And most importantly, they're Republicans, so everything they do is all right, and why can't we just leave them alone, right? We just need to forgive them, reelect them and do what they tell us to. They can do whatever they want.
June 16, 2009 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point! Good post.
June 16, 2009 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Spot on. IOKIYAR
June 16, 2009 9:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
OTOH, it all depends upon your perspective...
Democrats - We like Elizabeth Edwards. She's sharp, she's engaging. She's sympathetic. John would cheat on her! Why that bastard! Crucify him!
Republicans - Hmm, I've seen Vitter's/Ensign's wife. Maybe OK for a while, but hey, if you've got the chance for a little on the side, why not? Who wouldn't? Oh, shit, I hope that my wife never finds out that I'm screwing my assistant, or she'll cut me out of her trust fund! Ensign, that poor bastard, I hope I don't end up like him...
June 16, 2009 9:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent point!
But look at what John Edwards' message was. He had to be drummed out of politics because he was giving voice to the concerns of working class Americans and the poor. Can't have that sort of tawdry business in Washington. No sirree!
June 17, 2009 2:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, puhleeze! Edwards was "drummed" out of politics because he's a one-note LOSER!! "Fight, Fight, Fight!" Sounds like a high school cheerleader, not a presidential candidate.
Edwards won exactly ONE election in his entire life. He started running for president the day after the 2004 election and still couldn't win Iowa. You lose 28 out 29 primaries and cacuses and see how seriously you're taken.
And if you buy that "voice of little people" phony baloney act of his, I've got some great Enron stock to sell you!
Edwards was my senator and he was NO LIBERAL. He was as blue dog as you could get in the senate. He never proposed a single piece of progressive legislation and couldn't even be bothered to talk to his constituents while in office. He spent less time in NC than Elizabeth Dole. Complete fake!
June 17, 2009 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have to agree. Elizabeth Edwards was more composed, thoughtful, and clued in than her hubby. We'd have been better off with HER in the Senate seat.
June 17, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ensign on Larry Craig:
"I wouldn't put myself, hopefully, in that kind of position like that but if I was in a position like that, I think that's what I would do (resign)," Ensign said in Reno.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/9491962.html
June 16, 2009 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This guy also called Bill Clinton shameless!!!
June 16, 2009 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love your post name. Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember Bennett Cerf.
June 16, 2009 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
hey, at least it was with a woman. and this guy's a rethug? weird
June 16, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love it! Once again, the Republican League of Hypocrisy exposed for what it is. Surely Ensign voted to impeach or convict Clinton and is big on the "family values' agenda. Wonder how the Murdoch media will handle this.
June 16, 2009 7:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm betting…
crickets
June 17, 2009 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think I would faint if I ever saw a politician who got caught and said; "yes, I did it" and not, "I'm sorry', or "I deeply regret my actions."
Reporter: "So Senator, you had an affair?"
Senator: "Yes."
Reporter: "That's it, 'Yes', that's all? aren't you sorry?"
Senator: "Sorry? No, its what I wanted to do at the time."
June 16, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"hey, at least it was with a woman" --
I will wait for DNA testing to verify that assertion. Regardless, I bet she is well-tanned and plays golf. They don't call him Hairdo McWedgeshot for nothing.
June 16, 2009 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it just me or does he look a bit like Barry Bostwick (think Spin City)...
June 16, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
So he cuckolded his employee? If there isn't a law, there oughta be.
And who in their right mind would ever want to work for this turd again?
June 16, 2009 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
He did it to strengthen traditional marriage, clearly.
June 16, 2009 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clearly he is planning to run for prez in 2012 since he is trying to catch up to the number of Gingrich's affairs. You have to get on either the affair or the arrest record board if you are a Repub. ;-)
June 16, 2009 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
My money is on Cynthia Hampton.
Cynthia is the wife of Doug Hampton.
Doug Hampton was Ensign's Administrative Assistant (aka most senior official) in his Senate Office. He left the office in 2008, went through the "revolving door" and ended up at a place called The November Group. According to Legistorm, Doug left Ensign's office in May 2008.
June 16, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I stumbled upon Cynthia and Doug back in February 2008 when the National Republican Congressional Campaing Committee was imploding because of embezzler and 10 year treasurer Christoper Ward's theft of millions of dollars.
Cynthia was Chris Ward's assistant treasurer at the NRCC. I speculated she might have known something about the embezzelment.
At the time, I wrote at Firedoglake:
. At the time, I mistakenly wrote her name "Ely" instead of "Lea."June 16, 2009 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also wrote this at TPMMUCKRAKER:
June 16, 2009 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
June 16, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now as the story has it, the affair woman's husband (aka the former Ensign staffer) tried to blackmail the Senator. That's why it went public.
What was the former staffer's leverage? To publicize the affair? Maybe.
But the NRCC embezzelment case may dovetail here too. Cynthia worked for the embezzler. Cynthia and her husband, Doug, own a $1.1 M house in Las Vegas, despite supposedly living in DC. And the Battle Born PAC was one of the victims of embezzlement.
I think there's some shady money dealings here that are worth looking at, particularly if Cynthia is the affairee, and Doug is the blackmailer...
June 16, 2009 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here you can see that Cynthia was on Ensign's Senate PAC payroll.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/pac/transactions.php?pol_id=291&txnc_group_code_2=ADM_COSTS
June 16, 2009 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
So to lay it out, in a nutshell.
Cynthia Hampton is working for Ensign's PAC.
Cynthia Hampton is also working for the NRCC as Assistant Treasurer to (now convicted) Chris Ward. Ward embezzled millions from the NRCC.
Cynthia's hubby, Doug, is the #2 person in Ensign's DC Office. Doug appears to be deep in NV politics, but also close to the Senator.
Somehow, Cynthia and Doug live in DC, but they also manage to afford a $1M house in Las Vegas. (They tried to sell it over the last year, but apparently couldn't).
Was Cynthia involved in the embezzeling from the NRCC too? Did she and her husband buy that $1M house with illegal proceeds? Was the Senator involved?
Maybe the blackmail related to the involvement of Ensign in the NRCC scheme, and not just the affair?
Ensign also dovetails (as friends) with "embattled" NV Governor Jim Gibbons. So does Doug. And Gibbons also dovetails with famously corrupt ex Congressman John Doolittle - the Gibbons' and the Doolittles were close friends and vacationed at Tahoe together.
To take it a little further, but this is possibly a coincedence.
Doolittle and his wife owned an Abramoff-connected company called Sierra Dominion Financial. Gibbons and his wife owned a defense contractor called Sierra Nevada. And Doug, after leaving Ensign's office, worked for Sierra Pacific recources.
So many questions....
June 16, 2009 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's joining the faculty of the Newt Gingrich School of Personal Responsibility and Public Hypocrisy.
June 16, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
well, it now looks like the the senator was being blackmailed, and for this reason he decided to to public with the affair.. good for him, I have to say.. I was just wondering if there are reports of whether the guy who was reportedly blackmailing him (apparently the husband of the senator's ex-lover) has, or will be, arrested? blackmailing is illegal, right??
I think what the blackmailer did is morally even more reprehensible than what the senator did, as of course it was motivated by nothing but greed -- and I really do hope he gets arrested, at the very least.
June 16, 2009 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you. And I'm looking forwards to a very public trial, where Ensign is prosecution witness #1, outlining on the stand what he did to be blackmailed. In detail.
OK, I just snorted on my own keyboard. Ain't gonna happen.
Gawd, these Republicans. You can't make this stuff up.
June 16, 2009 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
So your idea is because the blackmailer is worse voters ought to keep re-electing this jerk?
June 16, 2009 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, I don't think that was the point. They are all sleaze-balls here. Just that it seems that one of them also actually committed a crime.
June 17, 2009 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm...maybe I can make both our families even stronger if I have sex with the honorable senator's wife.
June 16, 2009 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look, let's not be too tough on Ensign.
Prostitution is legal in Nevada, right? He agreed to pay the woman's husband, right?
What's the big deal?
June 16, 2009 9:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
That makes her husband a pimp.
June 16, 2009 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
This would be no bid deal if Ensign and the GOP didn't make their political careers out of telling people the rest of us how to live our lives.
Stay the fuck out of my bedroom and I'll stop caring who you are fucking.
June 16, 2009 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's disgusting to me that these wives always are used as political cover by their two-timing husbands. Just once I'd like to see a politician's wife let the guy hang all alone.
June 16, 2009 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's probably what started the problem -- the wife letting the guy hang all alone.
June 16, 2009 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't care if he screws a dog, a pig, and a goat as long as it's not a minor and doesn't affect his job performance. I pretty much felt the same way about Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and anybody else.
But it occurs to me that these guys that get out front, moralizing about how wrong it is to have affairs, etc., would maybe have their previous words in the backs of their minds as they're considering unzipping their pants. But then, they never think they'll get caught. And it is abundantly clear every single day that Republicans are comfortable being hypocrites, so I guess my expectations are too high.
June 16, 2009 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know you meant that as hyperbole, but it really isn't okay to screw animals; they are not capable of consent.
June 17, 2009 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly they way many animals dress they are asking for it. Just ask Bill O.
June 17, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have a point there; and those pigs who wear lipstick....I stand corrected!
June 17, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
You guys are starting to make me nervous...
June 18, 2009 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't believe I'm saying this, but ...
He was separated from his wife before the affair began, and that does, in my mind, take down his hypocrisy. At least a little bit.
Really, I wish we'd get to the point where one's private business isn't what elections turn on. And I know, and agree, the Repubs are total hypocrites about this stuff . .. but still, it doesn't seem the same as Vitter (or, frankly, Edwards) to me.
June 16, 2009 10:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
While I kind of understand where you are coming from, there were the slight problems that 1) she was also married (separated? doesn't sound like it) and 2) her husband was his employee (and a fairly senior one).
That seems to ramp back up the hypocrisy.
I'd rate it a hypocrisy wash.
June 16, 2009 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really? Does separation mean that you can have as many affairs as you want even if you are still married? If you separated BECAUSE your wife found out that you were having an affair mean that you are OKAY on moral grounds?
So, according to you -- if you are still married, but you are "temporarily separated" with the idea of working things out, it is okay to have sex with anyone at all, because you are no longer married -- no, that's not the excuse... because your wife drove you to it? No, that doesn't work with the "EXCUSE OF THE DAY"
Nope! if you're married, you don't get to have affairs. Just ask any of the thousands of men who have a) gotten away with it, or b) haven't.
But I would give one warning: DON'T SAY THAT OTHERS SHOULD RESIGN FROM OFFICE FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING! It really makes you look like a slug.
Good riddance, Senator Ensign, to you; you are yet one more ignorant person who thinks he is exempt from normal behavioral morals; and I sincerely hope that the blackmailer is not protected by the FBI in an effort to protect you!
June 17, 2009 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator Ensign has always been a ladies man . . . but in a doggy style kind of way :) I even have the photo and story to prove it. Just go to:
http://landofpuregold.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/senator-ensign-has-always-been-a-ladies-man/
June 16, 2009 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a minute! According to the Yahoo AP article, he was separated with his wife at the time and he and the staffer called it off when Ensign and his wife got back together. So what's the story - that he had an affair with a married woman? That's her husband's problem.
Bourgeois morality knows no depths - even more those calling themselves liberals.
June 16, 2009 11:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The story is the hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do.
Yes he was separated (though not divorced), yes they called it off after the Senator and his wife reconciled and yes the husband/staffer is the one screwed. None of that, however, takes away from him being a first class hypocrite since he was out there proclaiming how teh gays threaten marriage and Clinton must resign over the blue dress.
June 16, 2009 11:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I think the story is the blackmail. What was Ensign actually being blackmailed about? Not the affair becoming public. That was too easy to neutralize by Ensign outing himself. Now that Ensign has done that, it makes it appear that everything's out in the open and there's nothing more to know.
That seems fishy to me. My guess is that the blackmail's about something worse and Ensign is hoping the media (and we) will now be so focused on the "sex scandal" that whatever else is there will be ignored.
June 17, 2009 2:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, don't be judgmental of others then get caught with your pants down. And I'm not sure I really believe the "we were separated" excuse. Most likely they separated because of his cheating.
June 17, 2009 12:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Both my kids just said, "Hey look, it's Steve Martin!" Perhaps John Ensign could star in a remake of The Jerk, now that he has realized he has a "special purpose."
June 17, 2009 3:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
For me, this is just unfortunate, no matter which side of the political aisle it affects. If we weren't such a bunch of fucking puritans, this shit wouldn't matter. It must be really great to sit back and view the world from that beautiful glass house, huh folks ?
June 17, 2009 4:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good point, this is sort of like the dry dog food that makes its own sauce. My mother has direct experience with the Pentacostal group to which Ensign belongs. She was invited to Aimee Semple McPherson's Foursquare Church in LA in 1941. She was 15 at the time, so it was not unreasonable that she couldn't control her giggling when she first witnessed people talking in tongues and having blankets thrown on them. She and her friends were politely asked to leave. Given the loss in his PR value, Ensign, the Senate's sole Pentacostal, will likely be politely asked to leave as it interferes with the purposes of an organization geared to applied technologies of ecstasy.
June 17, 2009 4:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
It was Ensign playing the puritan role. Don't blame it on "life." This jerk is a major ass-hole hypocrite! If he had kept his mouth shut about every other of the MANY adulterers in the government, he might at least deserve to be left alone. But NOOOOOOOO, he was up on his high horse. He deserves what he gets.
June 17, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's all Obama's fault --- and Hollywood's. They created this liberal atmosphere of moral equivalence. Poor Republican Senator fell for their coastal elitist hype and toppled from grace!
But, hey, let's move on! Just like with Rep Senator Larry Craig, the wife's on board so no problem!
Now, can we just get back to all that Letterman-Palin joke business?
Remember: Bad [liberal] jokes kill and are EVERYBODY'S business!
June 17, 2009 6:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow - who cares? I didn't care when Bubba did it and I frankly couldn't care any less now -
June 17, 2009 7:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
When did "Bubba" do you mean Clinton? Stand up on his high horse? Who cares what you said at the time? This guy is a complete ass-hole hypocrite. Accept it! Losers are losers.
June 18, 2009 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
IRAN, IRAN, IRAN --- that is why he's releasing this info NOW. What better time would there be? Media's busy discussing IRAN.
June 17, 2009 8:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good article in the Las Vegas Sun on the self-defeating hypocrisy of the Republicans:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/17/ensign-fallout-could-weaken-gop-efforts-rebuild-pa/
June 17, 2009 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
The only reason I take note of adultery among members of Congress is because Republicans are such hypocrites on moral issues.
June 17, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Blackmail of a US Senator is a crime. I hope the DOJ is looking into talking with the Senator about possible arrest (and exposure) of who this couple is and whether they did in fact ask for money.
June 17, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink