Ooopsies! 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.

From the aptly-named blog "We Saw That", an excerpt from David "Diapers and a Call Girl" Vitter's re-election email.

Recently I held a conference call with some of my key supporters and grassroots leaders around the state. During the call we discussed issues currently being addressed in Congress. Also, looking ahead to 2010, I would like to use these calls to reenergize and reorganize the statewide campaign network which worked so hard and was so successful in my 2004 Senatorial election.
[...]
We'll also talk about forming a statewide network for the David Vitter for Senate 2010 campaign. As we get closer to my 2010 campaign for reelection I'll be hosting more conference calls and meetings, attending rallies and festivals, and cheering our teams on at football games around the state.

Ah, life is good. Hopefully, the football games aren't on Tuesdays, Vitter's preferred day to... ahem, "meet up" with call girl Wendy Cortez. I wonder if Vitter will get help in his campaign from fellow family values Republicans Larry Craig and Mark Foley?

And he's running for Larry Craig's old seat. What's the matter with Idaho?

CBS News:

A Senate candidate has legally changed his name to Pro-Life and will appear on the ballot that way this year, state election officials say.

As Marvin Pro-Life Richardson, the organic strawberry farmer from Letha, 30 miles northwest of Boise, was denied the use of his middle name when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006 because the state's policy bars the use of slogans on the ballot.

Now, though, officials in the Idaho secretary of state's office say they have no choice because Pro-Life is his full and only name. He says he will run for the highest state office on the ballot every two years for the rest of his life, advocating murder charges for doctors who perform abortions and for women who obtain the procedure.

Craig failed to file the necessary re-election papers, thereby keeping his promise to retire.

Comrade Kevin's Chrestomathy: The Generational Divide

Words of Power: Human Rights Update

Simply Left Behind: Heartbroken by a movie...

I can't believe it's not a democracy!: God bless the ACLU, "helping" Larry Craig by arguing Constitution guarantees privacy of bathroom stall sex.
I am not making that up.

A couple science bloggers I know have a thang... or two... to say to Mister Huckabee.

Guest (guest? Wait a minute, don't I have a condo in this complex?) -blogged by Blue Gal, send tips to bluegalsblog AT gmail.

Hi, This is Bob Morris from Politics in the Zeros guest blogging this week. My blog covers antiwar, global warming, peak oil, and the political intersections thereof. All the causes are linked, it seems to me. If we stop spending billions on wars, then we can spend it here to create clean, renewable energy. Send tips and links to bob at polizeros dot com.

The CEO of a Houston investment bank says Peak Oil is real and happening now.

Michigan doctor Catherine Wilkerson goes on trial tomorrow for felony assault for attempting to give medical aid to a protester rendered unconscious by police at a protest. Defend Wilkerson.

Kevin Rudd, the just-elected new leader of Australia, says global warming will be a main priority. Are you listening, US presidential candidates?

Britain has denied asylum to Uzbek dissident Jahongir Sidikov and plans to send him back where he will face torture. Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray is trying to mobilize support for Sidikov before it's too late.

Psst, there's a Liberal Conspiracy in Britain now.

Send tips this week to bob (DOT) morris (AT) gmail (DOT) com. (Hint: it does not have to be from your own blog. If you see something great, pass it on...)

Sen. Larry "I am not gay, I have never been gay" Craig's legal team has opted for a new tactic, given that their initial attempt to have Craig's guilty plea withdrawn was essentially laughed out of court. Now they are opting to try to invoke something that Republicans haven't seemed too concerned about in the last few years: constitutionality.

MN Star-Tribune: Sen. Larry Craig will argue before an appeals court that Minnesota's disorderly conduct law is unconstitutional as it applies to his conviction in a bathroom sex sting, according to a new court filing.

This is the first time Craig's attorneys have raised that issue. However, an earlier friend-of-the-court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Craig's foot-tapping and hand gesture under a stall divider at the Minneapolis airport are protected by the First Amendment.

Funny thing about that Free Speech argument, you never know who is going to use it...like maybe a man who described a rather crude and fumbling assignation with Craig twenty years ago, culminating in Craig taking out a twenty dollar bill and saying

‘Remember, I can buy and sell your ass ten thousand times over. You were never here. Don't try to come back here. You don't know me.'

Charming to the last, Larry.

Ah....the gift that keeps giving. Please, Sen. Craig, keep fighting this.

(photo courtesy of ABC News)

KING5.com (Seattle): (h/t miss kitty)

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday in his ongoing attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in connection with an arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting.

Craig's appeal was filed at the court in St. Paul less than two weeks after Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter refused to overturn the guilty plea, saying it "was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence."

Craig, a Republican from Idaho, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August after he was accused of soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in June.

The four-page filing did not detail the basis for the appeal.[..]

The senator also discussed his relationship with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Craig was Senate liaison for Romney's campaign, a post he abandoned when the scandal came to light.

"I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney," Craig told Lauer. "... And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

We'll have video from his exclusive special interview with Matt Lauer tomorrow night.

click for larger

We got our wish... Larry Craig has decided to stick around a little longer. More from Driftglass (who made the GOP men's room sign above...love the machine gun, Drifty honey), Winds of Change, and Idahofallz.

A big thanks to Mike for the title.

Download | play    Download | play

CNN:

Sen. Larry Craig won't resign from the Senate while awaiting a judge's ruling on his effort to get a guilty plea withdrawn in a restroom sex sting, a source said Wednesday.

Sen. Larry Craig is seeking to overturn his guilty plea stemming from an airport bathroom sex sting.[..]

Craig had said he would resign from the Senate if he could not get the guilty plea overturned by September 30.

But Craig on Tuesday said he won't resign until "legal determinations" are made.[..]

A Republican source involved in discussions about the case said Craig has made it clear he wants to find a way to stay in office.

Well, Craig may be kicking and screaming to hold on to his Senate seat, but Rep. Terry Everett (R-AL) announced that he is retiring at the end of this term.

Via NPR:

Sen. Larry Craig should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting because he was under extreme stress after being hounded by journalists asking questions about his sexuality, his lawyer argues.

Craig, an Idaho Republican, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct following a sting operation in a men's bathroom at the Minneapolis airport. His lawyer, William Martin, said he will file court documents Monday trying to undo that decision so Craig can fight the charge.

Martin said Monday that Craig did not "knowingly and intelligently enter a guilty plea." The senator simply admitted conduct that "itself does not constitute a crime," Martin said. Read more...

Senator Craig's motion to withdraw his guilty plea has been posted online, you can read it here.