Watching a senator’s slow political demise

By Jon Ralston

Sunday, July 25, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

John Ensign is dead, one in an occasional series:

Just in case anyone thought the most stunning public crime occurring in Nevada these days was GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle’s slow-motion suicide since June 8, Politico reminded us last week that Nevada’s junior senator’s self-immolation is even longer and more painful to watch. (http://tinyurl.com/23u2oba)

The Washington publication reported Friday that Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has turned over e-mails to the Justice Department and has agreed to be interviewed by the feds or the Senate ethics panel probing Ensign’s conduct that sprung from an affair he had with a former staffer, Cynthia Hampton, who was married to the senator’s best friend (who also worked for him).

Coburn was involved in some kind of intervention at the infamous “C Street” House of Ill Repute in February 2008 with Ensign and Doug Hampton, who subsequently asserted on “Face to Face” in July 2009 that Coburn tried to negotiate a deal for “restitution” from Nevada’s junior senator.

This is a far cry from the Tom Coburn of one year ago, who declared after Hampton described his role as an intermediary during that “Face to Face” interview: “I was counseling him (Ensign) as a physician and as an ordained deacon ... That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody.”

Coburn, an OB-GYN, either subsequently learned that Ensign had his tubes tied and needed no further counseling or, perhaps, he saw the light when he received the ominous documents request from the feds. These folks who lived or intervened in that hardly monastic religious house on “C Street” apparently were able to have revelations from time to time, having the same direct line to God that Angle has.

The Almighty’s advice to Coburn (“Bring forth your e-mails”) or Ensign (“Get back with your wife”) probably was slightly less political than his admonition to Angle to go forth and lose multiple races.

I would be shocked if the e-mails Coburn turned over to the Justice Department contained any smoking gun, especially since the focus of the probe appears to be on Ensign getting his parents to funnel $96,000 to the Hamptons, his potential conspiracy with Hampton to violate a lobbying cooling-off period and newer allegations of quid pro quos for campaign donations if companies retained Hampton.

But I suppose the e-mails could say:

Coburn to Ensign: “John, do you really think we could find a way to pay off Doug’s mortgage and give him a nest egg to start over?”

Ensign to Coburn: “Not a chance, Tom. I prayed over this, and he isn’t getting a dime from me. At this point, it’s extortion.”

Coburn to Ensign: “But you did sleep with his wife, John. And they both worked for you. It looks bad. And it’s a sin. How about giving him $500,000, getting him a lobbying job and free vet service for life?”

Ensign to Coburn: “I suppose I could ask some of my supporters and donors to help out. Good idea, Tom. Better safe than sorry.”

I doubt it will be that simple. Despite Ensign’s claims (through spokespeople) that Hampton’s version of events is inaccurate, I must reiterate: Nothing the cuckolded husband has said so far has been proven false. Not one thing.

So remember what he said during that “Face to Face” interview a year ago:

“I didn’t talk to John Ensign personally at all. Our attorneys did talk. Our attorneys absolutely talked, because Sen. Tom Coburn asked and was involved in these negotiations out of goodwill and good faith … The belief from Tom Coburn and many that some restitution needs to take place here.”

Sooner or later, this will proceed from the document-request stage to the interview-request stage — and both Coburn and Hampton will tell their stories anew. Until then, if you believe Harry Reid really is the reincarnation of Machiavelli, Ensign is safe for awhile.

The majority leader surely would want the scandalized Republican there to parry any allegations during Campaign 2010 that the Democrats are ethically challenged (Rangel, Massa, etc.) And if Team Reid is trying to push wavering independents away from Angle, how about the argument that if Reid loses, Nevada could be left with a backbencher freshman and a political eunuch?

Ensign is a confirmed political corpse, even if he is in denial, walking around dead as if in an M. Night Shyamalan film (when he knew how to make good ones). The only mystery left for Ensign is the method of his burial — the Justice Department, the Senate Ethics Committee or the voters.