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Sunday, April 11, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
John Ensign
Sun archives
- Fellow Republicans call for John Ensign’s resignation (4-9-2010)
- Deconstructing the facade of John Ensign (4-5-2010)
- John Ensign faces ethics complaint over apartment rent rate (4-1-2010)
- John Ensign: Press has been unfair (3-25-2010)
- Grand jury subpoenas issued in John Ensign probe (3-18-2010)
- E-mails link Sen. John Ensign to job effort tied to mistress' husband (3-10-2010)
The drip, drip, drip of political scandal can suddenly turn into a deluge. Such was the case last week for John Ensign.
Ensign has damaged his party at home and in Washington with his extramarital affair and his subsequent efforts to land jobs for the woman’s husband, Doug Hampton, who was his former friend and top staffer.
Yet until last week, calls for his resignation have been few. A talk radio show host in Reno, a conservative rabble rouser in Las Vegas and even Sean Hannity on Fox News have been unable to bring others to their view that Ensign must resign.
Not that Republicans aren’t thinking about a future without Ensign. As one GOP strategist put it: “A lot of people wish he would resign, but there’s a difference between wishing it and calling for it.”
When Republican Rep. Dean Heller this year said Ensign was casting a “cloud” over Nevada politics, that was about as far as anyone in the GOP would go.
Until last week.
In a one-two punch, first Heller, followed by a pair of former Clark County Republican Party officials stepped up the game.
Heller labeled Ensign a “wounded” politician.
Two former Republican Party officials became the first to publicly call for him to step down.
“Let’s all stop ignoring the problem,” wrote Richard Scotti, the immediate past chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, and Swadeep Nigam, the county party’s former treasurer, in an op-ed on the conservative Web site Nevada News & Views.
“The only way the Ensign-problem for the GOP will go away is if enough of us call for his resignation.”
The momentum was palpable.
Their harsh words came on the heels of ongoing disclosures from The New York Times and KLAS Channel 8 about the Justice Department’s investigation into Ensign’s behavior, as well as a widely circulated Las Vegas Sun story last week that portrayed Ensign’s political isolation.
Yet several Republicans dismissed the op-ed calling for Ensign to resign as a well-intentioned but inconsequential essay by “two guys” with no real influence as opinion leaders in the state.
Because Scotti was more recently co-chairman of the Las Vegas-area campaign for Brian Sandoval, the Republican front-runner for governor, speculation immediately turned to an obvious connection: Was he penning the column as groundwork for Sandoval to wade into the conversation?
The op-ed would provide cover for candidates who may be sheepish about being the first to call for Ensign’s head. Showing leadership on this issue could be an empowering move for Republican candidates — especially in the state’s conservative and libertarian circles — separating them from the pack as Heller has done with his outspoken comments.
But Scotti, it turns out, left the Sandoval campaign this year. Sandoval himself declined to comment on Ensign’s future.
Even if Ensign were to be indicted, Republicans said they may prefer to let the charges play out before calling for his resignation — not so much standing by his side, but refusing to get involved.
Bernie Zadrowski, another former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party and candidate for judge, said, “People want to hear what the evidence is.”
A resignation would greatly complicate party politics heading into the November election. Embattled Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons would be able to appoint a successor, but the seat would be contested in November, creating a domino effect of candidate jockeying. Would Heller run? Or Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley? Who would fill their congressional seats with the filing deadline for those races passed?
With the upcoming summer anniversary of the Ensign scandal, how the saga began is now well understood. When or how it will end is another matter entirely.
While the RepubliCANNOTs are fighting amongst themselves, it's best to just stand back and well out of the way.
My advice is to just leave it alone. Let him stubbornly try to stay in office.
That way the taxpayers of Nevada will have the privilege of watching him arrested and led away in handcuffs sometime in the near future.
He owes us that image. At least.
Senator Ensign is pond scum.
John Ensin has besmirched his once good name, his wife, his best friend, his best friends wife, the Republican party, The Conservative movement in America, the state of Nevada, the U.S. Senate, his parents name, and countless other folks and institutions.
He is the subject of both a senate probe and an FBI investigation. Subpoenas are being pasted all over town like pizza shop menus.
He's a pariah, both personally and professionally.
Should he resign?
He's not up for re-election until 2012...
i say the stupid pathetic ugly lying always making a threat or fear mongering republicans should leave johnny boy i slept with my best friend's wife then ran to mommy and daddy to fix my boo boo ensign alone...
it just won't be as much fun without him...
he is a living breathing walking real life example of what total blowhards the nut jobs on the religious right are...
the nut jobs that the stupid pathetic ugly lying always making a threat and fear mongering republicans love...
so...
i say...
free johnny boy i slept with my best friend's wife then ran to mommy and daddy to fix my boo boo ensign now!!!
Ensign is not going to resign. He needs his seat to use in a plea-bargain deal. But, that day is soon approaching. Money isn't enough to get out of this jam. He needs a real chip to bargain. He is a true son of Nevada after all.
Drip, drip, drip....how fitting (mistress).
Ensign E. Newman's "What, me worry?" attitude isn't cutting it anymore as mountains of evidence piles up proving he's just a run-of-the-mill, low-life lying thug. His best option now is to cop a plea that avoids prison time in exchange for a resignation.
And he can cancel that trip to Iowa since it's unlikely he'll be running for president anytime soon.
If Ensign resigns, Gibbons can appoint himself as Senator and then become the incumbant in 2012.
As a Nevada Republican, I say Ensign should resign. For the good of the State.
As a social conservative and political ultra-conservative, politicians who have personal problems with members of the opposite sex, need to have privacy. Leave Sen. Ensign alone.
Republians are corrupt. Thay are supporting a sexual predator who sold out Nevada!
The Ensign family is trash.
Impeach sexual predator John Ensign.
Do not vote for republicans until they get rid of John Ensign!
I hope he stays around. Leno, MSNBC, etc need material. The talk show host that used to be in charge of his "youth" program likes him. That is about it.
Resign Ensign
PierreBeauRegard- This is not about his privacy. He won because he told man organizations he was in theory AND in practice an upstanding christian family man. Plus he screwed around with the wife of a guy who worked for him.
This isn't about him and his relation to his wife. His actions are about his relations to the community of Nevadans who he represents to the nation. I wouldn't give a plug nickle to the guy.
Who does Senator Ensign Help? Can anyone, anywhere relay a true story of "HOW" Senator Ensign helped a constituent "right a wrong"?
Or perhaps you are one of many that suffered a similar experience when you asked Senator Ensign and Office for help.
First Ensign's Office looses your request and letter Ensign finally sends MSHA mysteriously get lost?
Then Senator Ensign and MSHA(Dr Gregory Wagner) state in a reply letter (2 years later-letter copy is available upon request) that a cab fire in a moving 400 ton Haul truck can NOT be investigated until a fire has raged for 30 minutes. Really, Senator Ensign whose safety does this protect???
So Senator Ensign you want to be a better person?
Just maybe Senator Ensign, folks like myself that voted for you last time around expect more then Obtuse, Obscene, Life threatening "REGULATIONS" That provide cover for Large Mining Corporations , MSHA, Nevada Mine Safety and Training Section and the poor excuse we Nevadan's have for a Senator. . . such as is Mr. John Ensign.
I've got an idea, why don't you Senator John Ensign "GET LOST" or ride in a 400 ton haul truck with a cab fire.
Paul Rupp B125 SP NV 89047
Ensign resigns and Gibbons appoints Sandoval! That's why the Rs are dragging their feet on this. But the longer Ensign waits to resign, the more hot water Pretty Boy Brian's campaign team will be in. Pete Ernot and Mike Slanker have already received subpoenaes, so how long til they are indicted along with the creepy veterinarian? Sandoval would not be able to put two sentences together without Ernot and Slanker, his puppet masters. Wake up my fellow Nevadans, these turkeys are all the same.
Oh, and Ernot is also the lobbyist for MINING, in case there weren't enough conflicts in the stew already
Senator Ensign should resign for the good of the country, they way Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich did.
Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) called on Senator John Ensign (R-NV) to resign amid the swirling sex scandal.
Oh wait. It's the other way around.
Ensign is just another example of the hypocricy that exists in the Republican party. They all scream about family values and belong to cults like "The Family" and at the same time are running around Banging their best friends wife or trying to help another one in their party bribe the home wrecker to keep quiet. At first I was demanding that Ensign resign but now I think it is better to keep the scum bag out there so that his story and the story of his fellow cult members dont go away.
Maybe you're right.
And so the junior senator of the great state of nevada continues twisting slowly, slowly in the wind ...
can't someone please take him down? he's beginning to smell!
Yes, vc, all republicans are members of "The Family", bang their best friends wives, try to help another one in their party bribe the home wrecker to keep quiet help.
This happens all the time with republicans.
You're stupid.
Birdie, for the love of God, please pick a name. Why do you insist on using having two identities here?
henderson-AKA-LarryVegas writes: "Yes, vc, all republicans are members of "The Family", bang their best friends wives, try to help another one in their party bribe the home wrecker to keep quiet help."
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Promise Keepers, Losers Weepers.
I have a close friend that used to see and work around Ensign on a regular basis,,,, my friend would always use these words to describe Ensign to me,,,, rude, jerk, snobish, thinks he is better than anyone else on the planet, pompus, un-friendly, wont give you the time of day, not a nice person,,, and a whole bunch of other things that I cant write or post here.
It's nice to see karma does come back around !!!
Cheers
Davyo