Sen. Ensign’s Affair Threatens to Ensnare Other GOP Leaders
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has landed in our No. 2 spot on Scandal Watch.
This post has been updated (June 19, 2009 6:40 p.m.)
The fallout from an extramarital affair between Ensign and Cindy Hampton, a campaign staffer, is threatening to ensnare other Republican leaders as they try to marshal opposition to the Obama administration.
A June 11 letter written by Hampton’s husband, published today in the Las Vegas Sun, claims that at least one of Ensign’s colleagues, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., knew about the affair more than a year before Ensign’s public confession, but did not act to remove him from party leadership.
Though unconfirmed—Coburn’s communications director said Coburn would not comment on the claims made in the letter—the allegation could turn one of Washington’s periodic sex scandals into something of larger significance.
Initially, it seemed as though the splatter would be confined to Ensign’s political ambitions. After admitting to the affair on Tuesday, Ensign—a rising star among conservatives who was thought to be considering a presidential run in 2012—resigned his post as the Senate’s fourth-leading Republican.
Then it emerged that Cindy Hampton’s salary—paid from Ensign’s political payroll—had doubled during the time of their affair, which went on from December 2007 to August 2008. Also in that period, Hampton’s son landed a $1,000-a-month internship with the National Republican Senatorial Committee—chaired by Ensign. After Hampton and her husband, Doug (also a top Ensign aide), were dismissed by Ensign, the senator allegedly helped Doug Hampton find a job with a Las Vegas airline that is among his major campaign contributors.
Now the Sun is reporting that, days before Ensign acknowledged his affair with Cindy Hampton, Doug Hampton wrote a letter to Fox News anchorwoman Megyn Kelly, begging her to help expose Ensign’s “unethical behavior” because his fellow lawmakers had not.
The letter claimed that Doug Hampton had confronted Ensign repeatedly about the affair, including once in Ensign’s Washington, D.C., home in February 2008 in front of “a group of his peers.”
“One of the attendee’s [sic] was Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma as well as several other men who are close to the Senator,” it says.
Hours after the Sun posted the letter, Ensign fired back. His spokesman released a statement saying Doug Hampton had approached Ensign for a pay-off within the last month, making “exorbitant demands for cash and other financial benefits” through an attorney.
If indeed Coburn and others were aware of Ensign’s problems for as long as Hampton says, they could face thorny questions about why his stature within the Republican Party continued to rise. Ensign was chairman of the Republican Senate Policy Committee, which sets out the party’s legislative agenda, and just weeks ago, he traveled to Iowa, fueling the presidential speculation.
The controversy is a distraction Coburn hardly needs as he attempts to spearhead Republican opposition to the Obama administration’s stimulus plan. Coburn recently issued a report criticizing 100 stimulus projects, then found himself in a dust storm when administration officials called the report misleading and error-filled.
Update (June 19, 2009 6:40): Hours after the Sun posted the letter, Ensign fired back. His spokesman released a statement saying Doug Hampton had approached Ensign for a pay-off within the last month, making “exorbitant demands for cash and other financial benefits” through an attorney.
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2 comments
larry lynch
June 21, 2009, 6:25 p.m.
Sen John Ensign may now be called a pius fraud, hypocrite, copulating Christian, aka f#king Jesus freak, fundie fake. Ensign has admitted to having a sexual relationship for a time with the wife of 1 of Ensign’s employees. Ensign’s relationship with the lady is called adultery by some Christian’s. Ensign is a father, is married to the mother of the couples 3 children. Ensign is a member of a Penticostal church (Pentacostals are called holy rollers by those of little or no faith, members of mainline Protestant churches, Roman Catholics, Eastern Rite churches & many Christians who say that their worship of Jesus is dignified because Jesus is the Son of God & he must be given respect at all times.).
Pentacostals are emotional in their worship of Jesus. They shout, writhe in spasms because they love Jesus intensly & also fear Jesus as their Lord, Savior & Master, tremble in fear of ever offending Jesus, if they sin & die unforgiven by Jesus-they are condemned to spend eternity in Hell, Pentascostals who obtain forgivness from Jesus & faithfully do God’s will go to heaven for eternity; this makes Pentacostal filled so full of joy that they shout & sing gladly & loudly as they writhe & dance in joy.
Wags say that Ensign & his so called hussy rolled in the bed they used for clandestine sex. That kind of rolling, copulation & other erotic acts isn’t called holy; is it?
Ensign violently criticized former POTUS for engaging in carnal acts with a White House, female intern, in Clinton’s private office, aka the Oval Office, demanded that Clinton resign from being POTUS, when Clinton refused to resign Ensign campaigned to have Clinton impeached, tried for high crimes & misdomenors, be found guilty & be removed from office. There were long & very dramatic hearing conducted by the US Congress to determine if Clinton was to impeached & tried by the US Senate for his impeachable offences. Clinton & others were relentlessly questione at those hearings. Clinton wasn’t impeached, tried or removed from office despite the great efforts of Ensign & others.
These hearing left hatred between the Republicans & Democrats which still exists. A climate of acramony still exists too.
Ensign’s public confession of adultry has led to demands that Ensign resign from the US Senate & 111th Congress. Sen Ensign has resigned from his leadership positions in the US Senate but Ensign hasn’t resigned from his seat in the US Senate yet.
Sen Ensign belongs to a Chrisian mens group that fiercely advocates fundie values. Adultry is condemned by Christians. Some vindictive people, including this writer, would be happy if Ensign resigned from the senate & was expelled from all fundie groups which he has joined. Our attitude is that it would serve Ensign, the pius fraud, right if he left public life in disgrace & would never again be allowed to be involved in politics at any level.
Ensign’s church can deal with Ensign, the sinner who confessed to adultry. If Ensign spent the rest of his life in sack cloth & ashes to express sorrow for his sins, to be re-admitted to his church & beg forgivness of Jesus, that would be a suitable gesture on Ensign’s part. Ensign must be considered to be hoplessly tainted by all of his acts. He now bears a foul, putrid, odor that would sicken & drive a horse fly from a wagon load of well rotted guts on a 100 degree, f, day if John Ensign were allowed to ride on the wagons bed in or on the load of putrid, well rotted guts.
Ensign must bear the full consequences of his thoroughly disgusting acts.
I truly want Ensign to go to heaven for I don’t want him near me in hell. My sinful associates & I loathe John Ensign. Jesus is more than welcome to Ensign & those of Ensign’s ilk. Sweet Jesus, we sinners beg you to grant our wish. Take John Ensign to your throne & mansion so we in hell don’t have to smell John Ensign, the pius fraud & be forced to be close to him to get the foul smell Ensign excretes when you are with-in a mile of the foul hipocrite, Ensign.
Jesus, you bungled thing badly when you created John Ensign. WTF did you send him to earth? You must loate human kind.
Ruth A King
June 22, 2009, 9:01 p.m.
The more judgmental and “cocky”/know it all a person is, the more vulnerable he is to failure. I really believe it’s a spiritual principle. May God give us leaders who can figure out how to stay humble and seek guidance from good people and from prayer. I’m a Southern, Bible-belt woman and I guess it shows…
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