I think it’s a bit of a mistake to see the Ensign scandal as just another example of a Family Values champion engaging in extrafamilial activity on the DL. There seems to have been some real misconduct here — here’s Josh Marshall with a quick summary:
Ensign now seems to be conceding that he arranged for employment for Hampton during a period in which Hampton was repeatedly confronting him to demand Ensign stop sleeping with his wife.
When Larry Craig was tap-dancing in Minneapolis, he wasn’t offering anyone anyone a job in return for some bathroom loving. Sure, it may have been “conduct unbecoming a Senator” but so is singing “Let the Eagle Soar”. And if hypocrisy were a crime, everyone in Congress would be in jail, along with most of the rest of the population.
I honestly don’t care what these guys do in their spare time. But when they’re using their position to pay for Senatorial sexytime, I think it becomes a legitimate issue. Do people agree? Or is this just another waste-of-time scandal we should all ignore?
Jennifer
Best reason to ignore: it conjures images of Ensign having sex.
Best reason not to ignore: You motherfuckers just couldn’t get enough of the panty-sniffing back in 98, could you? Well, smell THIS, biznatch! BRING IT ON!
Laura W
I must be officially loop the loop now. I laughed hard.
(And I know no one cares, but I swear the 3″ thick organic NY strip steak that I’ve just cooked to perfection on my Foreman Grill is the best one EVER.)
(OK, 1.5″.)
Comrade Stuck
Probably, unfortunately. To get kicked out of the Senate Club Med, I think there has to be a live boy or dead girl. That excludes girl senators who have demonstrated something rare called good character so far.
Eddie
Eliot is discovered, disgraced, and disappears into the shadows.
Newt, John, David, Larry, etc don’t break stride.
Calouste
There’s also this thing that Mr. Hampton, Mrs. Hampton and Son Hampton were all employed by Ensign, either directly or in his capacity as chairman of the NRSC. At the minimum they were indirectly paid from campaign donations, but there could also have been public funds involved.
Btw, why didn’t Hampton confront his wife and demand she stop sleeping with Ensign? Didn’t she have a say in the matter?
JGabriel
DougJ:
Employment might have been the better word choice here.
.
Jennifer
@Calouste:
There’s also this thing that Mr. Hampton, Mrs. Hampton and Son Hampton were all employed by Ensign, either directly or in his capacity as chairman of the NRSC.
Who was the hispanic guy from Colorado on Clinton’s team who got taken down for pretty much this same thing?
Btw, why didn’t Hampton confront his wife and demand she stop sleeping with Ensign?
Whatever happened to the good old days when a spouse went and filed for divorce from a spouse who wouldn’t stop sleeping around?
Dulcie
@Calouste: He tried that first, didn’t work. Plus they’re repubs – his wife is his “property”.
Mike
No! No! Keep it going!
We NV Libs are loving every tawdry revelation!
There’s lots of sanctimony in NV (believe it or not)
and it’s great to finally have a pie in the face moment for
the moral scolds.
The Grand Panjandrum
I realize this is a Very Serious Thread about possible wrongdoing by a US Senator but after a seeing pictures of his wife and the “other woman” I question Ensign’s sanity. Jesus Christ the only thing I can think of is that this Hampton woman knows how to open a bottle of wine. (NSFW)
DougJ
Ha.
Mr. Snrub
@Jennifer: I believe that was Federico Pena (former mayor of Denver)
Calouste
@Dulcie:
That raises another question: Why did Hampton want to stay married to a woman who wouldn’t stop sleeping with his boss? Did he really believe in all that Promise Keeper crap? (Well, he believed Fox News would help him out in his problems with Ensign, so I guess we know the answer.)
Mainer
Who paid the hush money?
Was it the taxpayers?
Republican donors to the NRSC?
Out of Ensign’s pocket?
A particular donor with interests in a certain piece of legislation?
I think those are the questions worth asking.
Warren Terra
Beyond the obvious hypocrisy of Ensign’s past rhetoric about families and in particular about Bill Clinton, his being a Promise Keeper, etcetera, and the more run-of-the-mill unsavoriness of an extramarital affair, there’s some really nasty stuff, with Ensign having an extended affair with the wife of a subordinate whose career and livelihood are in his hands, while the subordinate gets more and more upset and starts sending aggrieved letters off to the media (well, to Fox, anyway).
Still, all that said, and while it’s difficult to prove it wasn’t a special payoff intended to silence the man he’d cuckolded, Ensign’s defense on the payoff issue is that he always goes to extraordinary lengths to arrange employment for his former senior aides, and it’s fairly plausible. After all, it’s fairly common behavior for mentor-acolyte arrangements of this sort.
Calouste
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I haven’t seen any pictures of the other woman yet. Just of another other woman who also accidentally is called Cynthia Hampton but is actually 12 years or so older.
John Cole
@The Grand Panjandrum: I have not seen a picture of her and thought that was weird. Aren’t the woman’s face normally plastered all over the media (see the Spitzer case, Monica Lewinsky, etc).
Dulcie
@Mike: I’m in Nevada too – grew up in Reno, but live in Vegas now.
The Ensign scandal really is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it?
simonee
If we push hard on this, Republicans will make us look like hypocrites. I think we’re better off not giving Republicans an opportunity to remind people about Clinton and Spitzer.
MikeJ
He’s never gonna make Lt JG now.
Calming Influence
OK, let’s see:
-he’s sleeping with a guys wife;
-the guy asks him to stop sleeping with his wife;
-he says “How ’bout I keep sleeping with your wife, but give you a job?”
-the guy says “Oh well sure, I’ll take a job!“.
.
.
.
Now them’s some wholesome folks!
Gus
Is that concern trolling? Has anyone suggested that he should resign (or be impeached) for his peccadilloes? I find his hypocrisy contemptible, but I don’t think he should resign over an affair. On the other hand if taxpayer money was paid out as blackmail or patronage to his mistress and/or her husband and/or their kid, I’m open to an investigation.
DougJ
That was my feeling with Craig and Vitter. But I think this is real abuse of power.
I guess I should say that I think Craig and Vitter just weren’t legitimate scandals, so I didn’t care.
Left Coast Tom
I don’t see how we get from one to the other without rubbing the Congressional Panty-Sniffers noses in the stinkies they keep dropping on the carpet, each and every time they do so.
When they’re tired of it they’ll stop being Congressional Panty-Sniffers. But that won’t happen if we absolve them of the need to follow Their Own Alleged Standards.
Comrade Stuck
@simonee:
Nobody is pushing hard that matters. We are just pushing a chuckle, in between mouthfulls of Cheeto’s.
Linkmeister
@John Cole: When he made the initial confession she (Mrs. Ensign) was not standing at his side, unlike most of the other events of this nature that we’ve seen recently, I don’t think. I saw some press mention of that.
JL
We bitch about the dems not standing up and doing what is right for the public but unfortunately the MSM tells us what is right for the American Public. In the case of Ensign, he is a repub so it’s different. No news here. It’s sad but true. Both Vitter and Spitzer went to prostitutes and who got the coverage of the media. GEE and Vitter ever used diapers. You would think that if a dem used a diaper we would have hours and hours on what type and why..
Hedley Lamarr
This senator is a member of the Pentecostal International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, a serious protestant church. He has three foursquare children at last count, and had his fingers crossed behind his back when he took the Promise Keepers pledge.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Man, if this gets any more fucked up there will be a goat in two wetsuits.
SEnsign: I’m a pro-family values politician and anyone who does naughty stuff outside of the bounds of matrimony is bad, bad, bad! I will use my position to make sure no one does anything naughty, evar! Ooh, there’s an employee who is not my wife I want to fuck.
[Fucks employee who is not Mrs. Ensign]
SEnsign: I’m a pro-family values politician and anyone who does naughty stuff outside of the bounds of matrimony is bad, bad, bad!
Husband of employee who is not Mrs. Ensign: Then maybe you’d like to stop fucking my wife.
SEnsign: No. Wanna job?
Husband of employee who is not Mrs. Ensign: … OK.
Anne Laurie
I’m wondering if part of the weird vibe to this scandal is the way that the Powerful Personage literally got to screw one employee, while keeping the other members of her family “intimidated” by threatening to throw them out of work and (by implication) make it impossible for them to get other jobs. To an extent, scandals become headlines when they tell a story people want to hear — or at least a story the Media Village Idiots believe people ought to hear. Ensign’s party did its best, with mixed success, to make “Slick Willy’s Lewinsky scandal” a metaphor for the whole Democratic party as a collection of godless libertines who couldn’t refrain from humping the interns rather than focusing on Serious Political Business. If the GOP gets labelled as the “TPTB Party”, the Montgomery Burns/Smithers slimeballs who delight in fvcking over ‘the help’ just because they can… well, it’s a powerful narrative right now, isn’t it?
T. Scheisskopf
John:
You spend a lot of time trying to figure the right out, now that you are on the other side of the fence. Let me simplify it for you: They are sociopaths.
Dig it…
Comrade Stuck
@Hedley Lamarr:
Well that’s nothin’. I belong to the “Dirty Fucking Hippy Half Ass Church of the Bong” He can come worship with us us, if he wants.
Delia
@John Cole:
You want a picture of Cynthia Hampton? Well,
here you are. If that link isn’t too long to break it. And check out her really weird life testimonial while you’re at it.
J. Michael Neal
Open thread! Open thread! Open thread!
BombIranForChrist
I honestly believe that this hypocrisy is absolutely worth the story.
It is definitely true that humans are fallible and prone to hypocrisy, but not all humans make public policy that affect the lives of everyone else.
This whole “family values” crap isn’t just a harmless little slogan, a victimless crime, if you will. Sex education classes are replaced with abstinence talks, condom and other birth control programs aren’t funded, etc. etc. “Family values” have directly led to the suffering and harm of human beings, and so yes, it is important to establish how real this “family values” crap really is, and if it turns out that it is, in fact, a bunch of crap, it should be exposed as such so that we can create policy that will materially benefit people’s lives rather than enrich the political career of people who don’t actually practice or believe the philosophy they want to cram down everyone else’s throat.
So I don’t think Ensign gets off because “everyone is a hypocrite”. Yeah, everyone is a hypocrite. But there are degrees of hypocrisy and there are the ranging effects of hypocrisy. Ensign’s hypocrisy is both deep and wide, and he deserves everything he gets.
kay
@Anne Laurie:
That’s what I thought when I read it. Not that he offered the Hampton men jobs.
But that he told them they wouldn’t be working at all unless they did what he said.
It doesn’t make sense to me the other way.
Delia
There was also something else that’s getting lost in the chatter about the current affair. I saw this on TPM a couple of days ago. Apparently back in 2002 he disappeared for two full weeks and wouldn’t tell anyone where he went or what he was doing. The thinking now is that he was having another affair at that time.
DVT
I just got the title of the post. nice one.
Bob In Pacifica
From here:
kay
@Bob In Pacifica:
Why assume Cynthia was blackmailing Ensign?
It seems just as likely to me that Ensign was, essentially, blackmailing Cynthia.
Ensign was the employer, both directly and through the various entities he ran, and her whole family was dependent on that employment.
Ensign could render both Hamptons completely unemployable, certainly in the Nevada/GOP/DC circles they were in.
simonee
@Gus: Oh dear. I love me some Ha! In YO face, bitches!!! as much as the next guy, but it doesn’t do much to expose right-wing hypocrisy. If we point the finger, Republicans will point back, and some sort of false equivalency will be made in the public’s mind.
We want to show that its the family values folk who turn out to be the most agregious violators in that regard, and that the culture wars aren’t really a good reason to be voting for a particular candidate.
simonee
ack, egregious.
I know, I know. FAIL. but it won’t let me edit for some reason.
Ramalamadingdong
In my world this situation would be resolved with a firearm, not a note to Fox news. I don’t get it.
Rosali
This picture was posted earlier. Ugh.
Bob In Pacifica
kay, the block quote I printed was from someone else. I see that Ensign and his office have backed away from the “she/her husband blackmailed me” story. What I found interesting is that Cynthia Hampton was working below (I know, unfortunate turn of phrase in the context) the guy who embezzled millions out of the NRCC.
Now it’s not just another story about a sexual hypocrite in the Senate. It’s about embezzling campaign funds. The only question now is who was in bed with whom and for what purpose. Gotta say that this does not look for Ensign.
Church Lady
For God’s sake, if you’re going to have an affair, at least have the decency to have it with someone either better looking than your spouse or, at a minimum, someone not butt ass ugly. His “mistress” is hideous and his wife is fairly attractive. He must have been on drugs or is related to Prince Charles.
Brick Oven Bill
Re: “Please Help Me.”
This is pathetic crap. A man who lives in a $1.2 million mansion does not repeatedly confront the man who is nailing his wife and ask him to stop. The man who lives in a $1.2 million mansion confronts his wife and throws her shit out the window.
Shakedown.
Ramalamadingdong
I take my previous comment back. In my world no one would fight over that.
Deborah
I think people are burning out on hypocritical Republicans talking family values while ignoring marriage vows and good taste.
The money aspect is bad, and I hope Nevada gives him the boot. But since his partner is of the opposite gender, and not a hooker making disturbing sock revelations, and no one is dressing up as a panda bear, and there is no public nudity or golden showers involved….as Republican sex scandals go it’s pretty tame.
That the Republicans even have me thinking “thank heavens this one isn’t about furries” would be a bad sign if their utter incompetence at all other aspects of governance hadn’t rendered the possibility that I would vote for any in the next few years moot.
Brachiator
@Calouste:
Maybe she promised Ensign she’d keep sleeping with him.
It’s getting messier and problematic if taxpayer or contributor money is involved. It’s messier still if it violates Senate ethics rules or brings the Senate into disrepute.
But still it’s more about GOP craziness that being a Republican or Christian magically immunizes you against bad behavior.
Also, this is beginning to smell more like the infamous Alexander Hamilton/Maria Reynolds affair, which I alluded to in an earlier thread.
The whole thing blew up when the unreliable James Reynolds needed money for another scheme and threatened to go public with news about his arrangement with Hamilton.
Rosali
@Church Lady:
My sentiments exactly
Brachiator
@Church Lady:
Two words: Prince Charles.
Church Lady
@Brachiator: I mentioned Bonnie Prince Charlie in my post.
Oy Vey
Fifty-three comments and no mention of the Cypress Hill reference? Wow.
tc125231
Push all you want. Nothing is going to happen.
omen
come on, let me out of moderation jail.
omen
come on, let me out of moderation jail. maybe you like this email addy better.
Brachiator
@Church Lady:
Yes, you certainly did. Sorry. I originally was going to go in another direction, and missed that part of your post when I quoted you.
Church Lady
@Brachiator: That’s ok. Obviously, we were in some sort of mind meld on this subject.
Calouste
@Delia:
That’s not the Cynthia Hampton. The Cynthia Hampton Ensign was involved with is 46. The Cynthia Hampton at that Jehova’s watch site says she married in 1974 at age 18 and thus should now be 52 or 53.
bob h
TPM obviously sense blood in the water; more here than just another Republican family values hypocrite.
Docrailgun
Maybe this is why Conservatives are afraid of teh Ghey getting married: when Republican Congresscritters tie the knot they tend to sleep around… so letting the perverted evil ghey marry means that they will be sleeping around too. Worst of all, they might tempt the otherwise-straight to the Dark Side with their fabulous hair?
Though this is meant as a joke, maybe it’s not far from the truth in some peoples’ tiny minds?
RSA
I hope, some day, we’ll have an “Only Nixon could go to China” moment in American politics, when some conservative leader steps up and says, “Yeah, I banged her like a cheap gong. Just like any red-blooded American male, including Ronald fucking Reagan, would have done. Sorry if you don’t like it. But it doesn’t affect how I do my job, so just shut the fuck up.”
Gindy51
You have to wonder who Ensign pissed off recently. Lots of senators knew about this behavior (Coburn) in early 2008 and confronted Ensign with it. Ensign continued to pursue Mrs. Hampton even with the with twin pressures to cease coming from Mr. Hampton and his senatorial peers.
Did his aspirations for higher office get the better of him (see John Edwards)? Did he honestly think no one would ever see this scandal erupt? Did Fox News tell Ensign about the letter Hampton wrote them so Ensign could get out ahead of the explosion? Were the threats Mr. Hampton listed in his Fox letter connected in any way with the more nefarious residents of Ensign’s Vegas constituency?
Inquiring minds want to know…
maya
Because Jesus has forgiven them of their transgressions and in so doing has repurified their immortal souls. Moses just doesn’t pack the same clout.
The Tim Channel
The two pictures appear to be of the same person.
http://www.towerwatch.com/Testimonies/cynthia_hampton.htm
http://www.randytv.com/bowenvisit1.jpg
I am assuming that the second picture has Ensign on the left and the noted son of hers in the middle?
As to the supposed age difference? As if women didn’t lie about their ages…..
This isn’t about weird sex. IF that were it, I wouldn’t get all evangelical about it. It is about the fact that it is the very people who are trying to control and manipulate OUR morality have none of their own.
Who will be the last Republican? The Christocrats have totally DESTROYED their party. It’s God’s will.
Enjoy.
Bob In Pacifica
Boy, I’d like a good, detailed article on this because it gets deeper. Apparently, Ensign and “The World Is Flat” Coburn share the house where they live. Back in the first Dubya term the two shared a house that was owned by The Family (not Manson’s, the other family).
Over at Empty Wheel are reports that some of these “confrontations” happened in the owned by The Family with Coburn and others in attendance. So at least Coburn’s keeping his mouth shut is not just in deference to Ensign’s privacy.
So we have that Christian cult that owns the house that Ensign and Coburn cohabited while the subordinate of the guy who was embezzling millions from the NRCC was getting down there (presumably) with the Senator (Ensign) overseeing the NRCC.
Are there any investigative reporters working on this?
rs
Are there any investigative reporters working?
The Tim Channel
The investigation is ongoing. The reporting to the public on this matter through traditional media? I couldn’t say as I gave up on television news long ago. From the INTERNET, we already know about:
The whole creepy religious ‘family’ business.
The interesting living arrangements of Ensign/Coburn
The Promise Keeper’s desperate attempts to control their women.
The scorned husband’s impassioned appeal to FOX (and their refusal to initially move on the story).
Ensign has been openly (within his own tight social group) acting out on these adulterous impulses long enough that there was an attempted intervention last year.
I think there is a whole subplot of Christian sexually debauchery out there just waiting for the appropriate news outlet to pick up and run with, but haven’t we seen enough already to know that Ensign is seriously unfit for duty?
Enjoy.
Ed Drone
Hello?!? They needed the money!!! Simple answer to a simple question…
Ed
KaffeeMeister
If Ensign hadn’t been after Clinton and Craig, I think he might have more options. I don’t believe that he can survive his hypocrisy (at the national level), but unless there is some sort of national outrage at his hypocrisy, he’s not likely to be voted out. Some states just have more relaxed views about morality (especially if they are thuglican states).
This asshole wouldn’t be treated so easily if he was a Democratic party member. We do seem to actually have some semblance of discipline in our party – whereas the Rebuplic party just seems to allow almost anything, including fraud, bribery, larceny and purchase of offices.
Any Democrats contemplating republican tactics, better swear off. Democratic principles kick ass over the typical rethuglican ones. We don’t need to do the dirty shit that is a part of the Republican party’s SOP.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow has been really doing a great job putting the story out there,connecting all the financial dots of this Ensign mess….and it’s some crooked mess at that.