Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

John Ensign working his way back, trying to put affair behind him

“Senators don’t necessarily want him taking center stage, but he shouldn’t go into hiding either.”

Ensign

Lauren Victoria Burke / associated press

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has been making floor speeches opposing health care reform and plans to participate in the debate.

As Republican Sen. John Ensign was exiting the Capitol on Wednesday night, a Democratic senator entering the building stopped to greet him and thank him for having helped out on an earlier issue.

The next afternoon Ensign strode toward the main doors of the Senate chamber to deliver a floor speech on health care, making his way through a gaggle of reporters who not too long ago would have bombarded the Nevadan with questions about his affair and potential ethics violations.

Ensign passed by without bother.

The senator is trying again, with some success, to resume a normal legislative life in Washington, prompting some to ask: When will Doug Hampton, the husband of the woman involved with the senator, strike again?

Three times since Ensign first announced the affair with Cynthia Hampton in June, the senator has temporarily put the year-old episode behind him.

Three times, Doug Hampton has emerged at critical junctures to push the issue back into the spotlight.

The aggrieved husband and the senator are in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that shows no signs of subsiding. The winner could define the senator’s political future and influence the Republican Party’s 2010 electoral chances in both Washington and Nevada.

Ross Baker, a political scientist who studies Congress at Rutgers University, said he can recall few other episodes in Washington that resemble this case of a lawmaker being aggressively pursued with what he and others have called “vengeance.”

“These are deaths by 1,000 cuts,” Baker said. “Ensign can’t really land on his feet.”

Last week Ensign tried again to put the scandal behind him, conducting his first full-scale interview with a conservative talk radio host on KXNT-AM 840 in Las Vegas.

Ensign’s appearance on “Morning Source with host Alan Stock” was a strategy to go on the offensive, an effort to steer the story line away from Doug Hampton’s latest conveyance to a more favorable narrative for the senator.

“I’ve wanted to say some stuff for a long time and just decided to do it,” Ensign later explained.

During the first few minutes of the exchange, Ensign reiterated that he had done nothing legally wrong in helping Doug Hampton land a lobbying job, despite the husband’s claims that the senator knowingly violated the one-year ban on having former employees lobby.

The senator said his marriage was stronger than ever as he and his wife work on their relationship.

Then the hourlong conversation turned to health care, bank bailouts and other topics in Washington and Nevada.

Contrition, hard work — this is what both voters and Ensign’s colleagues want to see if the senator hopes to regain their trust and support, a Republican strategist said.

“The way Ensign can get back to normal is to lead a routine life as a senator,” said the former Senate Republican leadership aide, granted anonymity to speak frankly. “Senators don’t necessarily want him taking center stage, but he shouldn’t go into hiding either. Basically, he has to work the midnight shift.”

The senator has been making floor speeches as part of the Republican opposition to health care reform, and he plans to participate in the debate. Ensign’s staff is preparing multiple amendments to the health care bill, including one that may build on his successful committee legislation to provide premium discounts for healthy living.

“I hope this bill is on the floor long enough to do some things,” Ensign said in a brief talk last week. “When it’s a 2,000-page bill, it should be there long enough to do amendments where you can have a chance to do full and open debate.”

But the senator has been down this road before.

Nearly a month after Ensign first disclosed the affair with his former campaign staffer, Cynthia Hampton, her husband gave a lengthy interview on Las Vegas television launching fresh allegations and propelling the story back into the headlines.

Then the story faded, as Ensign made his tour of Nevada in August, trying to reconcile with voters and win back their trust in a series of public appearances and small group talks.

But in October, as Ensign was becoming fully involved in the health care debate at the Senate Finance Committee, The New York Times published a damaging story that included new allegations from Doug Hampton that Ensign knowingly allowed the former aide to lobby the senator’s office in violation of the one-year ban.

Those allegations are the most serious claims yet of potential wrongdoing, and ethics experts have said they fully expect a Justice Department investigation. The Senate Ethics Committee has confirmed that a preliminary inquiry is under way. The Justice Department has not said whether it is investigating.

Doug Hampton’s admission exposed himself to possible criminal violations, leaving some to label his vendetta a case of political murder-suicide.

Yet with no further details of any investigations trickling out, Ensign was able to redirect attention to his work. He chatted on the Senate floor with Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. The two have worked together on issues involving Iran, and Casey said those efforts would continue. “We can still get work done,” Casey said at the time.

Then Doug Hampton struck again. He appeared late last month on ABC’s “Nightline,” dropping details about the senator’s intercepted text message to Cynthia Hampton.

Some believe Doug Hampton won’t end his pursuit of vengeance until Ensign’s career is destroyed.

Doug Hampton first tried to publicize the senator’s affair in a letter to Fox News days after Ensign delivered a political speech in Iowa in what Washington saw as a test run for a potential presidential bid.

That the senator could simply continue pursuing his career as if nothing had happened may have roused the injured husband.

Doug Hampton’s motives have been increasingly questioned by some, including Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the Ensign confidant who shared the C Street Christian home with Ensign and other lawmakers until Ensign recently moved out.

Doug Hampton repeatedly sought money from Ensign, beyond the $96,000 the senator’s parents gave the Hampton family as Doug and Cynthia Hampton’s employment with the senator ended. Doug Hampton first wanted $8.5 million restitution from Ensign, then lowered that to about $2 million. Ensign refused.

“He has embarrassed Sen. Ensign. He’s got an investigation. What more does he want?” said the former Republican Senate leadership aide. “Doug Hampton has had his — I wouldn’t say 15 minutes of fame — his month of fame.”

But while Doug Hampton may be the messenger, it is the message that can be so damaging to Ensign and his party.

The story of the conservative social values politician who had an affair with the wife of his one-time best friend, and the potential ethics violations that may have followed, is not one Republican leaders want to hear over and over again as the campaign season begins to unfold.

Even though Ensign told the radio interviewer various Republican candidates have sought his help on their campaigns, many Republican candidates in Nevada have made it clear they would prefer not to have him on the trail.

Baker, the political science professor, noted that even former Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts did not face such a personal, public pursuit after the car crash at Chappaquiddick.

“What you have with the Doug Hampton situation is vengeance,” Baker said. “That’s what makes the Ensign situation so unusual.”

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy