We Are Family
In fairness, the Republicans never say WHICH family they value:
Early last year, Senator John Ensign contacted a small circle of political and corporate supporters back home in Nevada — a casino designer, an airline executive, the head of a utility and several political consultants — seeking work for a close friend and top Washington aide, Douglas Hampton.“He’s a competent guy, and he’s looking to come back to Nevada. Do you know of anything?” one patron recalled Mr. Ensign asking.
The job pitch left out one salient fact: the senator was having an affair with Mr. Hampton’s wife, Cynthia, a campaign aide. The tumult that the liaison was causing both families prompted Mr. Ensign, a two-term Republican, to try to contain the damage and find a landing spot for Mr. Hampton.
In the coming months, the senator arranged for Mr. Hampton to join a political consulting firm and lined up several donors as his lobbying clients, according to interviews, e-mail messages and other records. Mr. Ensign and his staff then repeatedly intervened on the companies’ behalf with federal agencies, often after urging from Mr. Hampton.
On the up side for Ensign, there were no wetsuits involved, and she was a woman. So it isn’t all bad news.
Surreal American
But, but, but…David Letterman!
dmsilev
But, but, Bill Clinton. So there!
And look, a jackelope!
-dms
Zifnab
After text messages to teenage pages and hookers with diapers, this just isn’t doing it for me.
JK
Is this good news for Douglas Coe and C Street?
General Winfield Stuck
This here sounds like a violation of the lobbying rules, and prolly several felonious guidelines. They are republicans after all, so we call them guidelines.
Morbo
The Family. (Sorry if it’s behind subscriber wall).
Ron Beasley
What evidence do you have that there we no wetsuits?
r€nato
no diapers either, and no evidence of direct bribery.
He’s a pretty stand-up guy… for a Republican.
calipygian
Looks like both adults in the Hampton family found work under Ensign.
mai naem
You forgot – And this is very good news for John McCain.
rea
Ensign, of course, is the good-looking, somewhat empty-headed son of a casino billionaire, who was being groomed for a run for the presidency. So at least we’ve probably been spared that . . .
Fwiffo
Ya know, a lot of this story makes more sense if the Senator is actually banging the husband.
Midnight Marauder
@Fwiffo:
Who said that we could, or should, rule out such a possibility?
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“On the up side for Ensign, there were no wetsuits involved, and she was a woman.”
Are we sure Ensign is a republican? Hetero sex scandals just doesn’t sound like the GOP.
PhoenixRising
“On the up side for Ensign, there were no wetsuits involved, and she was a woman.”
Hmm. It would be irresponsible not to speculate about what sports equipment MAY have been involved.
Not a True Scotsman, though. A real Republican would have been out hiking the Appalachian Trail with her…in a diaper.
apistat
Ensign has always been a big proponent of family values. In this case, his second family seemed to be valued at $96,000.
p.a.
Did Huey Long say, or was it said about him, “the only way he can lose is if he’s found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl…”?
Cerberus
Rachel Maddow has covered the story pretty well. I think my favorite part is either where he got his parents to bribe the family of his mistress leading to potential IRS or senate ethics investigations or the role of C Street which involved him being forced to write a break-up letter only to escape 80s movie style to swoop in and tell her not to read it and instead do that thing with her hair.
If we had a functioning government, the fallout of Ensign and Sanford would have caused at least as much motion on C Street as there was on ACORN for joking around with fake pimps before reporting them to the police.
burnspbesq
Ya gotta wonder about a state that can’t find better Senators than Harry Reid and Jon Ensign.
calipygian
@burnspbesq: Its the state with Las Vegas. Everything else is fake, why not the Senators?
smiley
I’ve only been to 4 national parks. Grand Canyon (twice), Smokey Mountain (at least 3-4 times), Mount Rainer, and Olympic. Oh, and one in Hawaii (I guess that’s 5). I feel like I’m a bad citizen. /Ken Burns