“Sanctity of Marriage” Senator Admits Affair

“Last year I had an affair,” Ensign said in a statement he read in a televised appearance back home in Nevada after privately informing Senate Republican colleagues.

“I violated the vows of my marriage. It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life.”

Ensign lead failed efforts for Republicans to pick up seats in last year’s Senate elections which left Democrats in control of the chamber with 59 of the 99 filled Senate seats. He ranks fourth in the Senate Republican leadership as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

Ensign, 51, indicated he plans to remain in Congress, saying in his statement, “I am committed to my service in the United States Senate and my work on behalf of the people of Nevada.” He is up for re-election to a third term in 2012.

A Republican aide who asked not to be identified noted the hypocrisy of Ensign’s action since the Nevada senator had scorned colleague Larry Craig after the Republican lawmaker from Idaho was arrested in 2007 and accused of trying to solicit sex in a men’s room.

“This is the guy who called Larry Craig a disgrace,”  Reuters reports.

Yeah, this is also the guy who said a lot about the sanctity of marriage. Here’s Ensign’s “Saving Marriage on the Senate Floor” 2004 press release:
“It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.”

Is it right to mold marriage from the perspective of a liar and a cheat? Do you really think that this spineless blowhard believes in “the sanctity of marriage” now, or do you finally see that he was using homophobia to get your votes, money, and power. And why is he suddenly coming clean? Politico has some good clues:

Politico:
“Current and former aides to the Nevada Republican say the woman was 46-year-old Cynthia Hampton
, a campaign staffer whose husband was a top aide in Ensign’s Senate office.

“It was known in [Ensign’s] inner circle that they were involved,” a former aide told POLITICO.

Hampton is married to Douglas Hampton, who, according to Senate records, served as Ensign’s administrative assistant in his personal office from November 2006 to May 2008 — around the same time Cynthia Hampton left Ensign’s committees.

A call to the Hamptons’ Las Vegas home Tuesday night was not returned; in a statement, Ensign’s wife said the situation has “been difficult on both families.”

Douglas Hampton was paid about $101,000 in 2008 and $144,000 in 2007 as Ensign’s administrative assistant. But a financial disclosure form he filed in 2007 and 2008 – required for senior congressional staffers – showed only checking and savings account worth a maximum $30,000 combined.

A review of public records shows that the Hamptons in 2006 took out a $1.2 million mortgage on their Las Vegas home, at an interest rate of 8 percent.

Political insiders in Nevada and in the Senate said that Ensign decided to acknowledge the affair publicly after the husband of the woman he had been seeing asked him for a substantial sum of money.”

Queerty reports on his defense of marriage on the senate floor:
“he “took to the floor of the United States Senate today to defend the sanctity of marriage and urge passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment Act.” He told fellow senators, “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation. Marriage, as a social institution, predates every other institution on which ordered society in America has relied. [...] It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.”

So while we feel for his wife and kids, we’re absolutely fine with seeing Ensign dragged through the mud on this.

If he uses his political clout and Senate vote to deny us the right of marriage that he, as a straight person, gets to so flippantly exercise, then he’s just as bad as a gay legislator voting against gay rights. (Need more reason to criticize Ensign? He voted against adding sexual orientation to hate crimes protections.)

Given Ensign’s proclivity for moral missteps, it’s no wonder he was against an ethics investigation into colleague Larry Craig — and yet he was all for Craig resigning. Some things hit too close to home, huh John?

Ensign, who had his sights potentially set on a 2012 GOP run for president, plans to keep his U.S. Senate seat. Hetero sex scandals aren’t as damaging, apparently.”

The Washington Post reports that Ensign was an expected Republican candidate (Isn’t that what everyone left in that party thinks?) for President in 2012:

“Ensign traveled to Iowa earlier this month to speak at a event sponsored by the American Future Fund, stoking speculation that he was interested in running for president in 2012.”

Well, I guess that’s two in the party not running. Dick Cheney, and Ensign. Another thing they have in common: Ensign can’t imagine why anyone would want to close Gitmo. Give me a break guy. And still, I don’t expect to see the fourth most powerful Republican drummed out of office for this, even if it would finally give the Dems that magic 60 vote number, this guy is way too buddy buddy with Reid for it to happen.

Here’s a fun video of Ensign warning us about Liberal Fairness, and how he’s going to bring back “Republican Morals”: