Rep. Sen. Confesses to Affair

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Rep. Sen. Confesses to Affair
13
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 9:40am

Ensign called for others to resign when news of their extramarital affairs were made public therefore we should be hearing of his resignation soon. Or is he just another hypocrite?


What happened to his "family vales"?


Sen. Ensign Acknowledges an Extramarital Affair


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061602746.html


Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), considered a rising star in the Republican Party, yesterday acknowledged an extramarital affair with a former campaign staffer who is married to one of the lawmaker's former legislative aides.


Ensign, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, disclosed the affair at a hastily arranged news briefing in Las Vegas, his home town. He flew home yesterday morning after informing GOP leaders on Capitol Hill of his impending announcement, missing a vote on tourism legislation considered important to Nevada's casino industry.


The news was the latest setback for a party that suffered losses of at least 13 Senate seats in the past two elections and saw Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) defect to the Democrats in April. Any further instability in their ranks is unwelcome news for Republicans, who viewed Ensign as a telegenic communicator who could deliver the conservative message on political talk shows in a congenial matter.


Ensign did not directly comment about his political future but said he was "committed to my service in the United States Senate." He does not face reelection until 2012 and had taken preliminary steps to explore a run for the White House that year, making a trip three weeks ago to Iowa, the first testing ground on the presidential primary calendar.


"I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions," Ensign said, reading from a prepared statement and leaving without taking questions. Ensign's wife, Darlene, was not at her husband's side during the short briefing but issued a statement saying the couple's marriage has become "stronger" after the affair.


"I love my husband," she said in her statement.


Other members of the Senate Republican leadership declined to comment yesterday on Ensign's admission. GOP leaders had hoped to spend the next few months focused on Nevada's other senator, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D), who is up for reelection in 2010 and is considered potentially vulnerable to a challenge.


Ensign is considered a leading voice among social conservatives in the GOP. In 1998, as a House member running against Reid, he called on President Bill Clinton to resign after revelations about his affair with a White House intern. "He sent taxpayer-paid staff out to lie for him, and that is a misuse of office," Ensign said, adding that the president had "no credibility left."


In September 2007, Ensign called then-Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) "embarrassing" after Craig was arrested in an airport men's restroom and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a sex sting. Ensign played the leading role in an unsuccessful effort to force Craig into resigning from the Senate immediately.


Ensign's affair began a few months after he called for his colleague to resign, according to a timeline provided by his office. Beginning in December 2007 and continuing until last August, Ensign had a "consensual affair" with a campaign staffer who was "married to an official Senate staffer," the statement from his office said.


Ensign said both the husband and the wife had left his political or legislative payrolls by May 2008.


GOP strategists were divided yesterday about the impact of this latest revelation on the party's image. Some argued that it would reinforce voter impressions of a Republican brand that has been dogged by controversies over the past several years, from Craig's sex scandal to the investigations of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with congressional Republicans.


"This is yet another reminder as to why the American people have chosen new management for the foreseeable future," said John Weaver, a former senior adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "Nothing is shocking in Washington, of course, except the audacity of politicians who believe rules don't apply to them."



Ensign acknowledged in a recent interview with The Washington Post that he was seeking to raise his national profile out of a belief that a dearth of effective GOP messengers was handicapping the party's comeback. "We have a responsibility to get our message out," Ensign said. Asked directly about his presidential ambitions, he said that most children dream of being president one day and that it was "not something I would ever rule out."


Ensign's political career appeared to be all but dead a decade ago, after he lost to Reid by the razor-thin margin of 428 votes in their bitter 1998 race. But then Nevada's other senator, Democrat Richard H. Bryan, announced his intention to retire in 2000, and Ensign jumped into that race, easily winning office and quickly becoming a favorite of GOP leaders.


The son of a casino magnate, Ensign is a prodigious fundraiser and was tasked with chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 2008 election cycle, a brutal period for Republicans. Despite overseeing the loss of at least seven seats, Ensign was not blamed and instead was promoted to be chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the No. 4 leadership position for Senate Republicans.


Ensign's personal life has caused other absences from the Capitol in the past.


In February 2002, Ensign took an unexplained two-week leave from the Senate, citing "personal reasons." When he returned, he told the Las Vegas Sun that he was "not making any comments one way or the other. I'm just asking people to respect my privacy."


It appears promises don't apply to him.


Below quote from this link......


 http://www.adherents.com/people/pe/John_Ensign.html



>"Ensign is an evangelical Christian who attends the Meadows Fellowship Foursquare Church in Las Vegas. He has participated in mass rallies conducted by the Promise Keepers, a men-only Christian group, and during his four years as a congressman had a 100 percent voter approval record from the Christian Coalition."<


 

Photobucket      The WeatherPixie 

 


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Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 12:18pm

I wonder if politicians cheat more than the average person or if they're just caught more often.






iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 12:25pm

He was publicly outspoken in the condemnation of others & belongs to the crowd that preaches about morals.


Bit tacky having an affair with a staff member's wife.

Photobucket

 


Photobucket&nbs

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 12:32pm

That's another thing about politicians I don't understand. If you're doing the same, are you so cocky that you won't get caught that you'd speak up? I'd be deathly afraid of being caught that I'd be afraid to speak up. But for them, it seems those who complain the most are the ones doing the same thing--Gingrich, Edwards, Ensign, Spitzer.






iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 1:06pm

"it seems those who complain the most are the ones doing the same thing"


That's what irks me they're so self-righteous. I'm no goody-good, far from it, but I'll never held myself up as a person of moral standard that others should emulate.


(Adding to your list: Sen. Vitter.)


 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 2:03pm

Ensign Resigns Party Leadership Post After Admitting Affair


Nevada Senator John Ensign resigned from a Republican leadership position a day after admitting he had an extramarital affair with a campaign aide.


Ensign stepped down as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, the fourth-ranking party leadership position in that chamber, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement released by his office. More...


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_XOHXtou6q0



 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2009
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 2:06pm

This pretty much sums up my thoughts:


Anti-Gay Marriage Sen. John Ensign Not Doing Great Upholding Sanctity of Straight Marriage

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 3:19pm

The whole "sanctity of marriage" line of attack against gays is a hoot. If marriages were so dang holy, we wouldn't have a divorce rate of nearly 50%. Married couples wouldn't commit adultery. There would never be spousal abuse, either psychological or physical.

When people use the "sanctity" approach, seems likely that they've been hitting the right/religious media too much rather than thinking critically about what the institution of marriage means OUTSIDE the gender of partners.

Pre-digested illogical pap and people regurgitating it in the guise of gospel truth irks me mightily.

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 8:07pm

Pre-digested illogical pap and people regurgitating it in the guise of gospel truth irks me mightily.


There is absolutely no way I could say that better!!


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 06-17-2009 - 8:30pm

He was publicly outspoken in the condemnation of others & belongs to the crowd that preaches about morals.


Bit tacky having an affair with a staff member's wife.


Whether he has an affair or not...between him & his wife.


Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Thu, 06-18-2009 - 6:43am
Thanks, I'd forgotten about Vittner and then there's Fossela.





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