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AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Barack Obama receives a kiss from first lady Michelle Obama after speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, left, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. applaud.
Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010 | 11:11 a.m.
133 C Street S.E. is registered as a church and affiliated with a secretive Christian group known as The Family. It is the Washington home of several influential conservative politicians, including Sen. John Ensign of Nevada.
John Ensign
An ethics group urged President Barack Obama and lawmakers not to attend today’s National Prayer Breakfast, the annual gathering organized by the group that runs the C Street Christian home where Republican Sen. John Ensign and other lawmakers have lived.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said in a letter to the White House and congressional leaders that by attending, elected officials give legitimacy to The Fellowship Foundation a “shadowy religious organization … preaching an unconventional brand of Christianity focused on meeting Jesus ‘man-to-man.’”
The group has “been linked to an unusually high number of ethically troubled members of Congress,” CREW wrote, singling out Ensign's affair and Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who was recently censured by his state’s legislature for behavior during his own extramarital affair.
“For those who have been housed in or sought refuge at C Street, a shocking pattern of unethical behavior has emerged, sparking public outrage,” CREW wrote.
Ensign had lived at the C Street home for much of his congressional career, and it was there that Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a housemate, and others intervened to encourage the Nevadan to end his affair with Cynthia Hampton.
Hampton was the senator’s former campaign treasurer and her husband, Doug Hampton, was a longtime Ensign friend and one of the senator’s top aides at the time of the affair.
Ensign’s parents gave the Hamptons $96,000 as they ended their employment with the senator. Doug Hampton became a lobbyist and has said he lobbied Ensign’s office, in violation of the one-year cooling off period for former staffers, with Ensign’s approval.
Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Senate Ethics Committee are making preliminary inquiries about Ensign’s actions.
Ensign has been close to the organization, including traveling overseas with the group. He moved out of the C Street home last year.
The group, also known as The Family, keeps a low profile, grooming potential leaders and engaging in back-door diplomacy with foreign governments, including despots, according to author Jeff Sharlet, who infiltrated the organization for his recent book “The Family.”
The annual prayer breakfast has been a Washington mainstay since the Eisenhower administration, drawing presidents, world leaders and members of Congress to the morning event.
Obama addressed the group this morning. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not attend. Ensign’s office declined to comment.
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Some people have confession in a tanning booth.
This just shows that the "Ethics" CREW group is really a partisan Democratic organization.
CREW was founded by Democrats.
CREW is funded by Democrats.
All the key members are Democrats.
Who cares how CREW came to be. Did the article speak of truth's or false-hoods? The answer is...TRUTH'S!!!
This is ridiculous. So the CREW is basically stating that elected officials who associate with this place are all engaging in "questionable behavior?" Do they watch the news. Many elected officials engage in this type of behavior. How quickly the Democrats forget a little guy named Clinton. Meeting Jesus and having a relationship with him sounds like an awful idea. Give me a break.
At the VERY least wear a hazmat suit if you're going.
Honest to God, I thought this was an article on the satirical website Theonion.com. Do we have anything better to do than worry about a prayer breakfast? We have no jobs, no future, we're losing our homes daily, but we'd rather complain about a breakfast back East?
Man, are we screwed up....
@ ned, of course. The population cares more about what a celebrity is wearing than issues that directly affect them. Just look at the top search results every day.
nednougat -- actually this is something every citizen should be concerned with. Every elected official takes an oath to support, etc., the Constitution. That includes the First Amendment which makes it quite clear government is NOT going to support any religion.
"The civil government ... functions with complete success ... by the total separation of the Church from the State." -- James Madison, 1819, Writings
Saying the Constitution prohibits elected representatives from excerising their freedom of religion is ridiculous.
There is absolutely nothing in the Constitution that prohibits any member of any of the branches from going to church, praying, reading their religious books, encouraging other people to follow their religion, etc.
religion & government must be separate, especially in a country thats full of muslims, jews, cristians, etc... ;)
The justice system needs to be separate as well!
Religion is an option.
Read about this group the Family..its very scary who they are.
Think witch trials, think ku klux klan, think in inquisitions, think lots of other bad stuff done in the name of Jesus. Ok, the buddies of Ensign are nuts. Gotta be careful.
The President did speak, he went into the den of lions, looked them in the face, and hit yet another home run. You can see the event on the CSPAN website under videos, the President begins speaking 70 minutes into the video.
He asked us all to rediscover civility , in fact that was his prayer for us.
What bout Barney Frank? How bout that sex tape with John Edwards? It happens to both parties.
Wonder what they had for breakfast??? A bowl of change for America and an order of egg in their face with somespam on the side...
SGTRock - push-ups until you can think straight again.