And you thought Mark Sanford was the only one "in love." I'm waiting for John Ensign to give an interview with the AP, just like Sanford.

The husband of John Ensign's mistress spoke publicly for the first time today, claiming that the Nevada Senator continued to pursue his wife, Cynthia Hampton, even after powerful political colleagues tried to stop him.

Doug Hampton said that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and others urged Ensign "to end the affair and help the Hamptons pay off their home and move to Colorado. But Ensign was so infatuated that he continued, Hampton said, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

He also claimed that Ensign paid Hampton's wife more than $25,000 in severance, which could be a possible felony violation of campaign finance law.

Hampton added that Coburn confronted Ensign and urged him to provide millions of dollars in assistance to the Hamptons to pay off their mortgage, in addition to getting Ensign to write a remorseful letter to Cynthia Hampton.

In the letter, Ensign expresses his shame: "I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure not letting thoughts of you, Dough, Brandon or Brittany come into my mind."

But that attitude changed quickly, says Hampton, who claims that Ensign later repudiated the letter and told him "I'm in love with your wife."

Now Ensign's attorney admits that the senator paid out $96,000 in hush money to the Hamptons. Ow.

Associated Press:

The evangelist forced out of his job after being caught up in a sex scandal involving a male prostitute has left a "spiritual restoration program" and no longer has any ties to the megachurch he founded, the congregation's new pastor said Sunday.

Under a severance deal that Ted Haggard reached with the church in 2006, he agreed to leave Colorado Springs and not talk about the scandal publicly. The deal expired at the end of 2007. New pastor Brady Boyd said Haggard was now free to live where he wanted and has returned to Colorado Springs.

Haggard and church officials clashed last summer after Haggard sent an e-mail to a Colorado Springs television station outlining his plans to work as a counselor at a Christian-run halfway house in Phoenix. The e-mail also solicited financial support. A four-pastor team of overseers said that those plans were unacceptable and that Haggard would seek secular employment instead. Read on...

There is a part of me that actually feels for Ted. Living a lie, being shunned by all he knew and loved, and even being forced to leave his own home must have been rough. Stories like this make up just one of many reasons I chose to walk away from organized religion many years ago. Did you catch the line above in bold? The brutal manner in which these awful people treated and controlled Haggard should anger and disgust anyone living in civilized society. At the very least, I hope Ted and his family find peace one day...

(Guest blogged by Logan Murphy)

How much worse can it get for poor, old Ted? As if the embarrassment of getting outed for doing meth with a male hooker wasn't bad enough, now the church he built from the ground up is paying him to leave Colorado Springs altogether. Gotta love those Christian values.

Via Huffington Post:

The Rev. Ted Haggard moved Wednesday from his longtime home in Colorado Springs to Phoenix, where the disgraced minister will join the same church that helped fallen televangelist Jim Baker.
Haggard, 50, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year, after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine. Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and said he bought meth but never used it.

As part of his severance package from New Life Church, a 14,000-member congregation he started in his basement, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs, a city he helped make an evangelical center.

"When he moved out of town today, there was a kind of relief on the part of the church that life can get back to normal," said the Rev. H.B. London, one of three ministers overseeing what has been called Haggard's "restoration." "For the Haggards, it is the beginning of a huge new chapter. It's a brand new start for them, the beginning of a new beginning." Read more...