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Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sen. John Ensign
Related story
Sun Archives
- Outwardly, John Ensign is taking extra ethics scrutiny in stride (10-7-2009)
- Ethics group amends John Ensign complaints (10-6-2009)
- Talk show host calls for John Ensign’s resignation (10-5-2009)
- After new disclosures, word of John Ensign investigations emerges (10-3-2009)
- John Ensign signals affair still off-limits (8-21-2009)
- John Ensign works on healing image (8-20-2009)
- Report: Officials silent on Ensign's father's casino plan (8-18-2009)
- Heller acknowledges the John Ensign effect (8-13-2009)
- GOP: Ensign affair hurt efforts to field Reid opponent (8-5-2009)
- For now, Ensign in GOP's good graces (8-5-2009)
Sun Coverage
The last time the Senate voted to expel one of its own was during the Civil War — the Club of 100 prefers instead to let voters decide whether lawmakers should stay or go.
But that’s not to say Republican Sen. John Ensign has nothing to fear from the Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his actions.
The six-member committee has various avenues shy of expulsion to register the institution’s displeasure with a colleague’s behavior, and none of them is good.
If the current preliminary inquiry expands to a full-blown investigation, there could be public, televised hearings. And a public censure or other rebuke from the committee would make running for reelection difficult.
Because it often takes months, even years, for the committee to decide a case, and the work is highly secretive, as required by its rules, senators under investigation live in political limbo as their political fortunes are deliberated.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said she doesn’t expect an outcome in the Ensign case for at least nine months.
Sloan’s group filed ethics complaints with both the committee and the FBI asking for inquiries into Ensign’s affair with his then-campaign treasurer, Cynthia Hampton, the $96,000 his parents paid to her family and his efforts to find a lobbying job for her husband, Doug Hampton, also a former staffer, after the couple left his employment.
Among the potential misdeeds, Sloan suggests Ensign violated federal law by conspiring with Doug Hampton to skirt the one-year ban on former staff members lobbying their bosses. Hampton told The New York Times he and Ensign were aware of the rule, but ignored it.
Ensign, who has said he did nothing wrong and will cooperate with any official investigation, plans to remain in office.
Donald A. Ritchie, an associate Senate historian, said the committee has various ways of dealing with colleagues facing ethical questions — from private letters admonishing senators to public votes.
After conducting a preliminary inquiry, which is under way in the Ensign case, the committee could decide to drop the matter or pursue a full investigation.
If it determines there were violations, the committee could reprimand the senator, as it did last year to Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, for his arrest in an airport men’s restroom sex sting, and Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, for meddling in the firing of his state’s U.S. attorney.
The committee could also recommend that the full Senate vote to reprimand the senator or take other actions. Former Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, for example, was censured in 1954 by a full vote of the Senate.
Such actions require a simple majority vote in the Senate, but do not strip senators of their ability to serve. McCarthy remained in office until his death several years later.
“None of this is carved in stone,” Ritchie noted.
The lawyer for one senator, he said, persuaded the Ethics Committee to denounce him rather than issue a censure. The senator didn’t want the same tag McCarthy got.
Ritchie added that the committee typically defers to the courts or law enforcement if other investigations are under way.
“They have incredible latitude on what to do when they do it,” the historian said.
Expelling a senator requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate, as spelled out in the Constitution.
But senators have often resisted being dismissed by their peers, preferring to resign rather than endure the spectacle of a floor vote on their political futures.
The most recent two senators facing imminent expulsion votes, Oregon Republican Sen. Robert Packwood in 1995 (repeated sexual misconduct) and New Jersey Democrat Sen. Harrison Williams in 1982 (the Abscam bribery scandal), stepped aside before their colleagues could give them the boot.
The last expulsions were in 1862 for a string of senators who supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Sloan, a former federal prosecutor, has been critical of the Ethics Committee, which she says is too cozy with senators and does not do its job. She said she has more confidence in law enforcement.
“I am more hopeful about the FBI,” she said on KNPR’s “State of Nevada” public affairs program.
johnnie boy ensign is a snot nosed spoiled punk...
johnnie boy ensign is a fraud...
a total and complete fraud...
this little maggot was granted every single advantage in life...
rode mommy and daddy's coat tails all the way to the us senate...
but that wasn't enough for this snot nosed spoiled punk...
he had to have his best friend's wife too...
and when he got caught he fired both of them...
just ruined their lives...
then this little maggot went running to mommy and daddy to fix his boo boo...
all while a member of "the family" cult...
and a "promise keeper" to boot...
what a sad clown ensign is...
bring on the ethics investigation!!!
I like John Ensign, he is a great spokesperson for Republickan family bible thumper values, the ensign follies are good entertainment, I hope he is around for a long time.
If Billy Boy Clinton survived why can't Ensign??? There are many definitions for sex and the word is.
Ensign's unfortunate in that the liberal leftwing media will run this non-story into the ground, but will omit the similar stories on Dem's (vis-a-vis John Edwards, Slick Bill, Charlie Rangel, the like).
Among the potential misdeeds, Sloan suggests Ensign violated federal law by conspiring with Doug Hampton to skirt the one-year ban on former staff members lobbying their bosses. Hampton told The New York Times he and Ensign were aware of the rule, but ignored it.
++++++
This is not a "non" story as one poster contends. Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio was sentenced to prison for 30 months and served 17 for similar antics. What he will potentially be investigated for has nothing to do with whom he had sex.
and charley rangel walks free and continues to work in the house after evading taxes....go figure he is a democrat not a republican.....
Justice is B.S.
it's for real baby, right wing christian nuts tell you what to do- YES SIR - just proves a brain is not necessary to type.
I saw Rangel in the cement mixer this morning on CNN and the guy is history sometime in the near future, I hope. He stole so much, he doesn't know how much. Emsign never stole anything his wife's honor, and he's paying her for it, I'm sure. This non-story has to end, so the man can please his God in his own way.
I will tell you whats really not right and thats the ability for Democrats to survive after a scandal at the polls on election day. Republicans can't get away with that as easy' Not that they should neather: But it gives the Democrats a license to steal and thats wrong.
The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to expand its probe of Rep. Charlie Rangel, D.-N.Y., chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee who is at the center of an investigation into a long and stinging list of alleged wrongdoing.
What Ensign was doing to his mistress, Rangel was doing to the entire United States...
I don't think John should be ousted. Look, since he's been out of the bedroom he's being doing alot for Nevada.
Why can't the Sun get an interview with Johns wife our his plaything?
Yesterday, Ensign voted AGAINST Senate Amendment 2688 to HR 3326 which will forbid any federal contractor (read KBR, Halliburton) from allowing wording in employee contracts that prevents the employee from taking legal action against the employer or perpetrator in case of RAPE. The vote was 69 aye, Senator Ensign and 29 others, nay.
There are currently approximately 30 cases where female employees of KBR and Halliburton in Iraq and Afghanistan have alleged rape against co-workers. So far they have been unable to initiate legal action because of vague references in their employment contracts preventing them from suing either the company or other employees.
With his peccadillo for seductions (2002 and Cindy Hampton), does Johnnie now support rape?