The Family Values Crowd Strikes Again: Sen. John Ensign Admits To An Affair With Aide's Wife
By Nicole Belle Tuesday Jun 16, 2009 4:00pmOoopsies! Someone got caught with their pants down...literally:
Sources in Washington and Nevada say Republican Sen. John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party considering a 2012 presidential bid will hold a press conference later today in which he will acknowledge an extramarital affair.
Ensign, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, flew back to his native Las Vegas today in anticipation of the public announcement, sources said, missing a vote considered key to the Nevada tourist industry.[..]
Elected in 2000 and reelected in 2006, Ensign has been a leading conservative among Senate Republicans, playing a key role in demanding the resignation of Larry Craig in September 2007. Ensign called Craig a "disgrace" after he was arrested in June 2007 in an airport men's restroom on disorderly conduct charges. Craig resisted the calls from Ensign to resign but retired from the Senate last November.
Per TPM, the woman worked on the Ensign re-election campaign and her husband worked as one of his Senate staffers. The reason it came to light now?
For a guy who harbored presidential ambitions, this is tough blow to his hopes for 2012. So something had to give. What was it?
Late Update: Politico has more detail, including a reported demand for money from the husband of Ensign's lover: Political insiders in the Senate and in Nevada told POLITICO that Ensign began an affair with a staffer several months after he separated from his wife. When Ensign reconciled with his wife, the sources said, he gave the aide a severance package and parted ways.
Sometime later, a Nevada source said, Ensign met with the husband of the woman involved and had what this source described as a positive encounter. Sources said that the man subsequently asked Ensign for a substantial sum of money - at which point Ensign decided to make the affair public.
Ouch. So cheating on your wife and extortion from former employees? How does that square with this statement made in 2004 regarding the sanctity of marriage:
“Marriage recognizes the ideal of a father and mother living together to raise their children,” Ensign said. “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation. Marriage, as a social institution, predates every other institution on which ordered society in America has relied.”
Ensign, in his comments, noted that Nevadans had amended the state constitution to guarantee the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. Ensign emphasized the need to preserve the will of Nevadans who voted overwhelmingly to preserve marriage as well as the need to preserve the will of the majority of Americans.
“I am deeply concerned that a few unelected judges and some locally elected government officials have taken steps to redefine marriage to fit their own agenda,” said Ensign. “It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.”
Yeah, good to see you uphold that sanctity, but my uncle and his partner of 15 years are somehow a threat to it.
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This shouldn't matter all that much. But it does simply because it, once again, highlights the absolute hypocricy of the Republican "impose my very specific version of morals on YOU" party.
It is hypocritical, but it would have been more so if the guy had propositioned a preteen daughter of an aide. As it stands, I see two consenting adults getting it on.
"As it stands, I see two consenting adults getting it on."
There's video?!?
Sanctity means Godliness. God had a child. God didn't get married. Jesus broke up marriages when he was putting together his PR team. He said he was also God. He didn't get married either.
You have to be a democrat like the ex--New York governor Eliot Spitzer , or Bill Clinton for illegal sex actions to be used against you night and day....
Is Craig still in office????
will now call for Ensign's resignation? Tit for tat.
Or tit for di*k?
Now THAT would be hilarious......
where he gets to scream "leave Ensign alone!" in full diaper regalia....
Ensign will be back, complete with a personal history that he is the victim of a Democrat(ic) smear. He and Palin would make a perfect pair.
...they are and just haven't been caught yet. Stranger things have happened.
This is great. It couldn't have happened to a more pompus a hole. This disgusting hypocite deserves this humiliation!
Those damn gays who want to marry! They were obviously responsible for Ensign's separation and his affair!
We got him, my pretty.....and his little dog, too!!!!
Oops, did the devil make him do it? Oh noes, did he do the nasty?
but..but...but...Clinton!!!
"Yeah, good to see you uphold that sanctity, but my uncle and his partner of 15 years are somehow a threat to it."
Partner? What, do they own a law firm or something? Call it what it is, regardless of the legality, it's his husband. Licensed or common law, that's what it is.
over a decade, and they do not refer themselves as husband or wife ;-)
Not everybody is interested in committing matrimony (*checks his shoulder to make sure his wife is not around*).
Most of us gays have yet to know the "joys"...cough..cough...of wedded "bliss".
/snark
;)
No disrespect intended. I don't really care if they call each other "My sweet baboo", the hypocrisy on Ensign's part is the same.
The problem is the lack of making one's self equivalent. I know it's impossible to get everyone on the same page here, but it'd be so much easier in the long run. However there are a lot of gay people that feel that a "marriage" is just aping failing hetero standards. So what do ya do? Congrats to your uncles, and to all who have happy long-term relationships.
I can see how this whole affair, could be defined as being "family oriented." I.e. a "family man" sleeping with some one else's wife.
Immoral, disgusting, and utterly hypocritical... but "family oriented" none the less.
"Republican Sen. John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party considering a 2012 presidential bid, will hold a press conference later today in which he will acknowledge an extramarital affair."
But he's really, really sorry if anyone feels betrayed by his actions or perceives them negatively.
And by the way, he's going right to church. You know, to pray about it.
At the very least, he's going to get down on his knees.
when liberals and Dems get a chuckle out of a politicians "humane" side but only when it's a Rethuglican. Earth to blog: He's a politician! Still waiting on a righteous one to come out. OOPS. Wrong phrase. Still waiting on one with morales and scruples to be broadcast. They are all greasy pr*cks.
How many Dems over the years have been "caught"??? OH but the party affiliation makes a difference!!!! Kinda like only Rethugs take bribes...I mean...lobbying. Pretty sure there is some morale code that goes with admittance into just one of the federal parties.
But it's a special kind of schadenfreude when it's someone who speaks loud and long about the sanctity of marriage and denies rights of marriage to others.
I don't care who he or anyone else sleeps with.
It's his self-righteous attitude in dictating who others can and can't sleep with/marry/love/etc. that makes this poignant.
Federal Defense of Marriage Act my Auntie Griselda.
To me, party matters not, when it comes to this sort of thing. It's disgusting in my eyes. You're right Nicole, it is hypocritical, but at the same time, regardless of party affiliation, disgusting. Maybe that's why I despise Bill Clinton.
I'm not a big Bill Clinton fan, either, but at least he didn't hold himself up as a model of morality.
What I care about are issues, how a person governs. So while Clinton's affair was disgusting to me personally, I'd rather put up with an adulterous prez who is a progressive than a monogamous prez who's a right-wing dipshit.
Bill Clinton basically admitted to cheating on his wife before he ever even got elected. I personally find it repugnant, but men and women who seek power have powerful drives -- for better or worse (eg Bush being driven to attack Iraq).
The issue here isn't that politicians should be above being human beings == the issue is that you shouldn't espouse that which you cannot do yourself.
it's about missing the point. This is not about party politics.
Honestly, I don't care about extramarital affairs. I don't care if politicians have them, as long as they're consensual.
What I care about is the hypocrisy. You cannot tell me that my committed uncle is a threat to the sanctity of marriage and then be diddling your aide's wife. You cannot tell Bill Clinton and Larry Craig that their credibility was so trashed by their infidelities that they should step down and then expect to keep your seat after admitting your own peccadilloes.
If you are in a position to legislate the rights of others, you have the moral obligation to uphold the standards you espouse.
Considering his disappointing responses to DADT and DOMA, if it comes out that Obama had an affair, I would be just as castigating of him.
i hope for not getting a bj
i still think he showed more restraint then most guys
most guys wouldve fucked that bim in the ass
Still the condescending pr*ck that doesn't grasp the definition of the word hypocrisy. Back to ignore you go.
how there were no concern trolls yet trying to either made us ashame of laughing at this idiot's predicament, or to remind us how Dems (who do not campaign on a platform of moral rectitude, but that is a "minor" detail I guess) also cheat on their wives.
I was wondering, if maybe the economy was that bad that had affected the concern trolling budget. And now I guess, it is just a case of it being outsourced. So I can't make a call regarding the economy based on that as an indicator... damn it!
Everyone that disagrees is a concern troll! Call us all when you reach maturity. Soon the light will go on. Puberty can be long and drawn out sometimes.
As soon as the light goes on when you can understand that the Republicans refer to themselves as the Party of "family values." They say it over and over. They have the moral majority on their side too. Why is it so difficult for you to get the hypocrisy?
Concerned: you seemed to have swallowed a dose of moral superiority with your Cap'n Crunch this morning.
Try some saltwater, mustard or just stick your finger down your throat. And be careful not to throw up on your shoes.
For once and for all, just fuck off, already.
You must have stung it badly to get a reply.
Doesn't matter, it's a brick wall with the same IQ.
I fail to see CC's purpose, other than to populate the ignore list of many in this site.
What people on the right don't get is that it's their party who claims to have the "Moral High Ground" and they are the people who cry about someone on the Left getting caught and how that person should step down or be removed from office. But when it's a Republican these same people on the same right-wing side of thought don't have anything to say, because it's someone on their side.
When Edwards was caught in an affair all I could think was "What a dumb-ass, has he never learned anything from what they did to Bill Clinton?" And whatever happens to Edwards because of his bad judgement I'm OK with, but I would never stand up and defend what he did. People on the right tend to believe their morals should only apply to other people and never themselves...and that's what makes something like this idiot's problem attracts scorn from the left.
Wrong!
Most folks here on this site take politicians to task no matter which party they belong to.
It isn't so much about what they're doing - it's about the sheer hypocrisy of the right wing when they claim to hold the moral high ground, and they are just as (if not more so) guilty of sexual indiscretions. And, actually, the homosexual indiscretions are mostly on the right wing side.
I don't care who does what with whom - just don't be a hypocrite about it. THAT label most often fits the right wingers.
These guys should start a club. Recession is getting in the way. They'd have to rent out Madison Square Garden for them all to fit. That could get pretty expensive.
I am surprised Faux "news" hasen't changed to 'R' a 'D' after his name yet!
ROFLMAO! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
Never ever trust anyone who goes around selling their values. Lying hypocrite SOB's, all of them!"
At least it was with a woman and not a man or teenage girl.
"Diddling" the wife of a staffer is always a good way to show those family values.
"The worst thing I've ever done in my life?" That's obviously what she thinks about you and why your not "gettin it" anymore.
I love the contrition of these morons. And it's only because they get caught.
I think this might hurt his run for the presidency. He's just sorry he got caught. Republicans and morals go together about as good as sperm and bath towels.
Dude - thanks A LOT for the imagery! From now on, I'll just drip dry. :)
(er.....getting out of the shower, that is.)
I'm sure this is obviously Obama's fault. Maybe O'Reilly and Mary Katherine Ham and Juan Williams can dissect this and find a way to show that had Obama not won the presidency Ensign would never have done this.
To have extra-marital sex and not pay for it is a Badge of Honor for a reich winger
"It's absolutely the worst thing I've ever done in my life."
No it isn't. The worst thing you ever did was get yourself elected in the name of the fatuous party of moral superiority and hypocrisy.
He is very, very sorry...........he got caught.
It was those homos in Massachusetts getting married that caused Ensign to violate the sanctity of his marriage!
It was our very own homos in Cali who literally forced him at gun point to cheat on his wife, just so that they could get their point across during the prop 8 shenanigans.
The real victim here is Mr. Ensign, a true American patriot!
"The real victim here is Mr. Ensign, a true American patriot!"
Any anyone who says otherwise is an incest loving, America hating, terrorist lover!
Wait.... wouldn't that describe to a T a large percentage of the population in parts of the Bible Belt?
John Ensign Was Right
by BarbinMD
Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 04:22:35 PM PDT
If only we had listened to Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) when he said:
Marriage is an extremely important institution in this country and protecting it is, in my mind, worth the extraordinary step of amending our constitution.
... because if we had, he wouldn't have been forced have an affair with the wife of an employee:
Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, on Tuesday admitted that he had an extramarital affair with a member of his campaign staff. [...]
An aide said the consensual affair took place between December 2007 and August 2008, and that the woman worked for both Mr. Ensign’s campaign operation, Ensign for Senate, as well as a conservative political action committee, Battleborn PAC, from December 2006 to May 2008. Mr. Ensign is honorary chairman of the PAC. The woman’s husband was a member of Mr. Ensign’s official Senate staff. Neither has worked for the senator since May 2008, the aide said.
And of course in the interest of consistency, we can expect Ensign to announce his resignation, given that he called for Bill Clinton to resign in light of his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky ...
For more discussion, see doctormatt06's diary.
Race tracker wiki: NV-Sen
men in general have a problem with letting
their dicks rule their morals. gay men
are upfront with their sexual agenda, but
so called "straight men" are not. i am a
gay man of 60yrs. i find on the "men seeking men"
sex lists across the internet, more and more so
called "straight men" are looking and getting
sex from other men both bi and gay men. these
"straight men" always want it to be discreet and
anonymous. and a great many advertize to get their
butts plugged when their "girlfriends/wives" are
out of town or gone for the night.
gay men don't pose a threat to marriage between
a man and a woman.....it's the man's dick and
own lack of morals that is the problem.
You seem to be genuinely threatened by the penises of straight males (aka "satan sticks"). Anything you want to share with us?
PS. In case you did not read the article, the other person involved in the affair was also married. But I guess it is A-OK, since lord knows that people sporting vaginas have never ever done anything wrong ever... ;-)
I think he's just disgusted at the hypocrisy of some "straight" men's dicks.
but not all straight men are dicks.
well, tyler
i have my doubts about you, honey
Clinton was straight, but Paula said his penis was crooked?
I admit, you gotta love this stuff. Major Burns Ensign diddling his values loving Major Houllihan.
are you concerned that i will find and
out you on one of these sex solicitation sites?
I've been a Republican over 30 years and KNOW the party is RELIEVED the affair was with a woman and not a man since the GOP has so many closet cases. Nationally, the GOP is terrified Graham and McConnell are going to be outed since they are bull-horn spokesmen for the party and KNOWN to be bi and gay.
I also understand your comment and the fact your trying to point out EXACTLY what the GOP is thankful DID NOT HAPPEN - a bisexual affair revealed Has nothing to do with your being gay, it has to do with the fact that SO many men are closeted bisexuals. The GOP is thankful it wasn't a man too. Not to offend you, a gay man.
Or he forgot to buy one at the Republican Convention for Douchebags.
It's ridiculous to watch the hyper critical attacks on Ensign from Democrats who refused to criticize Edwards, who's affair was much worse (affair with someone he just met while his wife is dying--and possibly fathering a kid vs. affair with a good friend while he and his wife are separated). Compare the gleeful tone of this post to the one of Edwards ("This is awful news"). Remember, both senators oppose gay marriage. When are we going to get real progressives?
Of course, the bigger issue with Ensign is that he paid off his staffer (and presumably asked her to leave). Isn't that illegal, or at least a misuse of tax dollars?
Put me down as one of those who was disgusted with Edwards' affair when it surfaced. What a dick - cheating on your dying wife. (Not that cheating on your non-dying wife is any better......)
I quote myself:
I said the same up above. I don't care about the actual affair. I care about the hypocrisy. If Edwards was still in the Senate and still advocating bigotry and DOMA, I would have hit him harder. As it was, his campaign was over when all this came out.
Edwards campaign was over, but Edwards has had, and still has, a large platform for his ideas. And Edwards continues to oppose gay marriage (and host his campaign website which similarly opposes gay marriage), so I do not buy into your excuse that because he was out of the presidential race, it in any way lessens his hypocrisy. He was still a very public figure. Bigotry from the right is no better than bigotry from the left.
with no current elected seat holds a bigger profile than a sitting Senator who has the power to enact legislation that affects the rights of segments of the population?
Wow. Learn something new every day.
Again, I have little interest in extramarital affairs. But if Edwards was in a position to affect the legality of gay marriage while getting a little sumpin' sumpin' on the side, I would absolutely hold his feet to the fire as well.
No one cares about, or follows John Edwards.
How you can try to make an analogy between him and this tool, who is one of the sitting leaders of the family values crowd (GOP) and
has his face on the telly everynight preaching to the rest of us, is beyond me.
John Edwards has about as much political clout as Larry Craig.
... that most people here were disgusted by Edwards.
Some people were disgusted by Edwards, but if you look back, the post on Edwards was very different than this post. And many people made excuses for Edwards and tried to deflect the hypocrisy.
Now you're just making shit up, son. Unless you can actually recall some of these "excuses", that is.
If I recall, the posts I read had come to a unanimous decision that John Edwards was an asshole.
In fact, the people running his campaign had a contingency plan to sabotage his campaign if it ever took off - which it didn't.
Let's wait and see if Ensign bags his political aspirations. I'm not holding my breath.
The concern and sympathy regarding the Edwards affair was for Elizabeth Edwards.
will see if the cheater will get held to the fire by the large mormon population in nevada. maybe ensign will make a visit to the house of god, ask for forgiveness and all will be better.
→ → →[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQHUauG5GIg ]
When a politician can't even pay-off a bribe! ;)
i want fox to talk/cover the bribe part of the story. these people were cuddly close according to shep. hey i really don't care about this but ensign was a mouth against bill clinton. ensign has no chance in 2012.
Everyone involved in this trist was a right wing family values person. Wonder who the gay person was that made them do it? I don't care what they do, but I am really sick of these Republican hypocrites. Saw David Vitter today on C-Span and had to laugh. Every
time I see him, I picture him in a diaper. Sick, I know, but I have to giggle.
I'm sure his constituents are very happy.
Gotta luv those values.
And this asshat said that anyone who violated any ethics or moral rules in the House or Senate should be removed from office.
But he's not willing to follow his own demands.
Yep, typical Rethug.
Another holy rolling repug hypocrite gets caught philandering. Are we surprised or just surprised that it wasn't a dude?
... for the life of me. WHY do senators/congressmen do this? I mean, I know why they do it, but don't they realize they WILL get caught eventually? Others ALWAYS know, and could tell at any time. Yet, these dweebs keep doing it. (And, of course, 100-to-1, it is GOPers.)
It tickled me, however, how he put one thing ahead of his being outted as a philanderer -- $$$$$. As soon as the wronged husband wanted $$$, he caved and took his chance with the "my wife forgave me" line.
you really think there arent more?
power corrupts
and power is the ultimate aphrodisiac
because he's a Republican. George Bush could have been filmed raping and strangling his mother on the White House Lawn during the Easter Egg Roll in front of a crowd of thousands while waving a bible overhead and the oh-so-moral right wing dimbulbs along with America's blatantly conservative media would figure a way to blame it on liberal permissiveness.
As they say here in Germany, "There's no medicine for stupidity."
Actually, what makes this newsworthy is that it's a Republican man in a sex scandal with ... a woman. TB Apple is right about the Republicans breathing a sigh of relief. Now they can follow their double standard whereby adultery by a Republican man is ok, so long as it's with an adult woman.
Actually, it was with a legal-age woman, and unless you take the extortion attempt into account, he didn't have to pay for it. That's the trifecta!
jeezus h christ
i hate these lying fucks
Two "pricks," no brains.
The GOP victimization train will be leaving the station in 5-4-3.....
It would be the republican party!
Take them back and teach them not to be lying hypocrites.
republicanism is a mental illness!
What bullshit.
I am sure this is not the worst thing he has ever done.
Afterall he is a republican! I don't think you could do anything worse then that!
Reslugs just can't admit that they aren't able to keep their tiny DICKS in their panties.
What a super classy guy and perfect Presidential material for the lowlife GOP party, to have an affair with your close friends wife.
Fucking hypocrite!!
Say buh-bye to your 2012 aspirations, unless the repukes want to totally screw up again (reference the choice of palin in 2008)
...was banging his wife, he asked for a large amount of cash. No love. Ahahahahaha!!!
with important business decisions.
seriously, why should I care about how/why he cheated on his wife or why clinton got a bj or why what's his face wanted a hummer in an airport bathroom stall. These are issues within their personal lives and as long as it doesn't effect their ability to govern then what is the big effing deal? It's only a big deal when a republican gets caught or confesses because they claim to be the moral majority and they use their "strict moralities" to govern, promoting their traditioal marriage, drug war, abstinence only policies when time and time again it is their GOP stars who get caught. When I hear Ensign's story I think "meh...he's only human." But then I remember he's part of the anti gay marriage/sanctity of traditional marriage crowd and well, irony's a bitch...
I read a post on another blog which I find most appropriate.
"SIX WORDS WITH THE SAME MEANING:
1. christian
2. baptist
3. religious right
4. GOP
5. Republican
6. Pharisee (a Bibical hypocrite)"
No diapers, no wet suits, no dildos, no underage pages. C'mon Republicans we know you can do better!
John Ensign is a veterinarian. Is "Neuter and Spay the Only Way"?
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/06/1...
Bottom Line... the GOP, who claims to be the Leave It To Beaver party (which is looking truer every day) has more horntoads per capita than the alleged Party of Evil Sex headed up by Slick Willie.
They define hypocrisy.
www.MacYapper.blogspot.com
Undercover among America's secret theocrats:
By Jeffrey Sharlet
Snip - "Ivanwald, which sits at the end of Twenty-fourth Street North in Arlington, Virginia, is known only to its residents and to the members and friends of the organization that sponsors it, a group of believers who refer to themselves as “the Family.” The Family is, in its own words, an “invisible” association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men."
------------------------------------------------------
Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.)
Charles Grassley (R., Iowa)
Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.)
John Ensign (R., Nev.)
James Inhofe (R., Okla.)
Bill Nelson (D., Fla.)...
[ http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525 ]
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