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twitterThe Senator’s Scandal:
For now, Ensign in GOP’s good graces
Senators won’t publicly second-guess Nevadan’s 2008 job performance in light of affair
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Sun Archives
- E-mails pull Ensign back in affair cauldron (8-4-2009)
- E-mails show Ensign's staff knew of affair (8-3-2009)
- In latest blow, Ensign's top staffers depart (7-28-2009)
- Ensign: 'Sorry this issue has caused embarrassment' (7-24-2009)
- Ensign loses another senior aide (7-23-2009)
- Ensign's chief of staff leaving (7-22-2009)
- Christian group paid for Ensign’s foreign travel (7-20-2009)
- Justice Department: Ensign complaint should go to FBI (7-20-2009)
- Behind the closed doors on C Street (7-19-2009)
- Ethics group amends Ensign complaint over $96,000 payment (7-17-2009)
- Ethics group amends Ensign complaint over $96,000 payment (7-17-2009)
- Ensign’s $96,000 question: Severance pay or gift to Hamptons? (7-16-2009)
- In D.C., some worry Ensign saga is not over (7-15-2009)
- Ensign gives first Senate speech since acknowledging affair (7-15-2009)
Sun Blogs
Washington — Republican Sen. John Ensign was never much blamed for his party’s electoral losses in the Senate in 2008, when he was chairman of the electoral committee and handed Democrats a nearly filibuster-proof chamber.
Even now, with Ensign admitting an affair with a campaign aide during that time and e-mails emerging this week showing Ensign’s top staff at the National Republican Senatorial Committee struggling with the fallout from the affair in the months before the election, senators declined to play Monday morning quarterback on Ensign’s job performance.
Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, whose race became the sleeper hit of the 2008 cycle when he was forced into a run-off, had no complaints when asked if Ensign’s affair could have been a distraction.
“In my case, looking back, I don’t see it,” Chambliss said Tuesday.
“He’s said he’s sorry,” Chambliss said. “He’s moved on and we’re trying to move on.”
Yet under the surface, in less guarded discussions among Republican strategists in Washington, the time line of Ensign’s affair has provided a ready road map to help explain the party’s devastating losses in 2008.
“The buzz around Senate Republicans is, ‘No wonder we weren’t doing as well … they were distracted,’ ” a Republican strategist said Tuesday. “What were they doing over there this whole time? Clearly they didn’t have their eye on the ball.”
E-mails disclosed this week between the woman, Cynthia Hampton, and her husband, Doug Hampton, who had been a top Ensign aide, and the two top committee staff members show the emotional toll the affair was taking.
Ensign’s affair with Cynthia Hampton began in December 2007, just as the election season was getting under way.
By February 2008 Ensign was confronted about the affair by his peers, including fellow Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, at the Christian home they share with other lawmakers on C Street in Washington.
The Hamptons stopped working for Ensign in April, and that month Ensign’s wealthy parents gave the Hampton family $96,000. The senator’s attorney called it a gift during a difficult time, but an ethics group wants it investigated as a possible felony violation of campaign finance law.
The July e-mails between the Hamptons and the political committee’s top aides, the husband-wife team of Mike and Lindsey Slanker, came after Ensign helped Doug Hampton get a job at November Inc., the Slankers’ political firm in Nevada.
That summer the Hamptons’ teenage son worked at the political committee as an intern.
The senator has said the affair broke off by August. The election was a few months later.
Republicans lost eight seats in the November 2008 election, including the long-disputed Minnesota contest, and put Democrats within one seat of the 60 needed for a filibuster-proof majority.
The Senate has not had a 60-seat majority in 30 years. Sixty seats are needed to cut off debate in the Senate and advance legislation without protest from the minority party.
With Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s switch from Republican to Democrat this year, Democrats now have a 60-seat majority.
Yet Ensign was not punished for the losses, as his colleagues understood the bad political environment they faced. Then-President George W. Bush was highly unpopular, and Barack Obama was winning in states, including Nevada, that had not voted Democratic in years.
In fact, Ensign was promoted, winning an internal election to Senate leadership in the Republican Party, a position he resigned after going public with the affair.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who took over as chairman of the committee for the 2010 election, said “2008 was a miserable year for Republicans. That was the biggest influence on the outcome.”
“Is someone suggesting his behavior, his private behavior, while he was chairman of the NRSC had an impact on the election?” said Republican Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah. “That’s a reach too long.
“The case could be made he did an extraordinary job because the losses weren’t worse than they were.”
When asked if Ensign’s situation had an effect on the races, former Republican Sen. John Sununu, who lost reelection last year in New Hampshire, said, “I’m sure it didn’t.”
Yet since Ensign went public with the affair seven weeks ago, Republican operatives in Washington have stitched together the time line and had an “aha!” moment.
The scuttle among those in the trenches when the news broke was what another Republican source in Washington called “the icing on the cake in a series of missteps.”
But now, even with the revelation of e-mails between the Hamptons and Slankers, Republicans in the Senate seem reluctant to engage in a story they hope will simply go away.
No one in Washington seems to be overtly calling for Ensign’s head, unless new developments emerge. They say Ensign’s fate is in the hands of Nevada voters when he is up for reelection in 2012.
“That’s frustrating to Senate Republicans to see the drip, drip, drip that was going on, because they trusted Ensign with their campaigns,” the Republican strategist said. “We’ll continue getting the drips. It’ll fill half a bucket.”
Discussion: 23 comments so far…
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It's a pun right?
Good Grace??
Christian values?
Sen Ensign-Promise Keeper getting grace from the GOP?
You're messing with us, right?
The GOP doesn't seem to be in any position to give out any grace lately. In fact, seems to me, they need it.
what do you expect from bunch of rich old guys. it's acout keeping power and keeping us in our place-btoke. gop is useless and only supported by the rich and stupid
Of course he wasn't blamed--they knew beforehand what he was into. And it's a lot more common than we are led to believe.
The cult understands and forgives the liar and philanderer.
Oh goodie, can't wait for the election season again.
Birds of a feather . . .
ensign is clown...
period...
end of story...
he was handed absolutely everything in life...
born with a silver spoon, fork and knife in his mouth...
and yet...
that was not enough for johnnie boy...
he had to have another man's wife...
and then when he got caught...
he went running to mommy and daddy like a pathetic spoiled child...
and all along...
he presented himself as a man with strong christian values...
hee hee hee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
what a fraud...
he is not a leader...
ensign is a spoiled child!!!
formervegas,
You really have a huge chip on your shoulder against rich people! Primarily rich white people. This cannot be healthy!
Out of the last 7 articles you posted on, only 1 didn't include a bitter comment about rich people, and that was about car racing.
I find it incredibly ironic that you take interest in a sport that primarily features rich white guys!
Bitterness is not an attractive or healthy quality.
my name is birdie...
i'm a big weirdo...
wow wee...
am i nuts...
i don't use capital letters or punctuation...
i just put 3 dots at the end of everything i say...
what do you republicans think of that...
hmmmm...
hee hee heee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
i have to wear a helmet all the time...
it's so i don't hurt myself...
because i'm really effed up in the head...
i talk just like this...
so nobody likes me...
but they can kiss the fat huge ass i have from sitting on the couch all the time crying about republicans...
what do you think of that...
hmmmm...
hoo hoo hoo...
hee hee hee...
haa haa haa...
i'll just keep doing this until they come for me with a straight jacket...
hmmmm...
the poor poor misguided mental health professionals will get me sooner or later...
will i go quietly...
nope!!!
hoo hoo hoo...
hee hee hee...
haa haa haa...
birdie...
you are a total freakshow.
hey henderson...
you know what they say partner...
imitation is the most sincere form of flattery...
and you know what...
they are right...
hee hee hee...
guess what partner...
you are not the first...
nor will you be the last to imitate me...
i have had a following every where i have blogged...
and the las vegas sun will be no different...
mark my words...
you know why...
i am just that damn good...
brilliant actually...
so...
run along my poor poor terribly misguided republican friend...
don't you have a town hall meeting to go scream at...
or a tea bag party to attend...
hee hee hee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
Again, he had an affair. Get over it, it was an affair. He's a great leader and oh-by-the-way we have REAL issues going on in our country in case people have forgotten. Senator John Ensign made a mistake, period; not the end of the world (sorry Liberals). I can tell you many of people have made the same mistake and surprising life goes on. I fully plan to support Ensign on 2012 and so will the majority, so let's move on!
hey dessertsun...
it is not as simple as he had an affair...
wasn't he a member of the "family"...
wasn't he a member of "promise keepers"...
didn't he hold himself out as a man with strong christian values...
wasn't the other woman his senior staffer's wife...
hee hee hee...
sorry sun stroke...
he didn't just have an affair...
he exposed himself as a fraud...
period...
end of story...
and then...
this is the part that kills me...
then...
when the gig was up...
what did he do...
he went running to mommy and daddy...
and mommy and daddy broke out the check book...
trying to make johnnie boy's boo boo go away...
hee hee hee...
sorry sun stroke...
that ain't no leader...
that's a spoiled child...
period...
end of story...
he's a great leader...
hee hee hee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
Next story: Ensign and "pro-Christian" International Security firms doing business in Iraq.
ensign a leader???
strike that...
ensign a great leader???
hmmm???
hee hee hee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
man that is funny...
wow wee...
i haven't had a good belly laugh like that in quite some time...
thanks skerlahdee...
that was good...
really good...
but seriously...
i am having trouble seeing it...
i mean can you really call a spoiled man child, who turned out to be a religious blowhard, who slept with his good friend/senior staffer's wife, and who then ran to mommy and daddy to fix his boo boo when he got caught, a leader???
strike that...
a great leader???
hee hee hee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
sorry...
hmmm...
well...
i gotta tell you...
the only way i can picture johnnie boy as a leader is...
well...
kinda like bozo the clown was a leader of small children...
you see...
johnnie boy clearly could play the role of bozo the clown...
and...
our poor poor terribly misguided republican friends...
they could clearly play the role of small children...
hmmm...
well...
it is a stretch no doubt...
but...
maybe you do have a point...
hee hee hee...
hoo hoo hoo...
haa haa haa...
DesertSun - While it will depends on who runs against him in the primary and then the general election, a lot of us in the GOP will definitely be holding our nose if we end up voting for him! He and Gibbons (along with Reid) need to find new careers!
rich people- henderson, glad you have time to track my posts. nascar is a rich mans sport- what kind of champagne are you sipping on.
How many poor black Nascar drivers are there?
After thinking I never heard a post from you that didn't include the words 'rich guys' or 'the rich' or 'rich white guys', I decided to backtrack along your posts. Sure enough, 6 out of your 7 previous posts used those terms. It didn't take a ton of legwork.
If the Twin Clowns, Ensign & Gibbons, run for and are re-elected to their respective offices,
it would sure say VOLUMES about Nevada.
And what about these 2 stooges' poor wives? They got thrown overboard by these losers! That has got to hurt. And how about the "other women"? THEY were also thrown under the bus by these schmuckolas! Well, there has been a lot of $$$ handed around, and that always works as a nice salve when you run into these situations, thank God! One must soldier on.
Seriously, Nevada, THINK about your reputation!
Wait a minute, strike that... um, what WOULD people think?
you rich guys, henderson have alot of time on your hands. sorry but i have to go to work to support your george bush tax break. you sound like a selfish little, fill in the blanks. hey now this will make 7 of 8 posts. sorry i enjoy nascar, i don't have $300 for a yankee ticket.
I'm not rich.
then your dumb
So we have to suffer with Ensign until 2012? Geez! When Clinton couldn't keep it in his pants, Vitter had his hookers and Larry Craig had his bathroom moment, there was our Senator Ensign calling for their resignation. As I recall, none of the above had mommy and daddy pay out $92K to the other woman/man. Now he votes against Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Way to go senator. You certainly will have the female, Hispanic, and cheated spouse vote all sewed up by 2012. What's next, turning Cash For Clunkers into a the new slogan for GOP fund raising? Might be appropriate, come to think of it.
Do us all a favor, resign. You've got three years to rehabilitate your image. Run again in 2012 to see if we really, really still love you.