So I’m reading up about this Ensign affair because it is creeping up memeorandum, and I thought it would be nice if one of these days the Republicans would stop being such moralizing blowhards with their family values nonsense. Then I had a good laugh, because that will never happen. If the GOP drops their holier than thou family values act, they’ve got absolutely nothing left.
I’m not sure if any of you have ever seen the documentary the Devil’s Playground
Just a thought.
demimondian
Welcome to the Party of Personal Repudiability!
Bill E Pilgrim
Wait, the Republicans need to experience what it’s like to be a paid shill getting money from corporations…..as a contrast to what it is they do now?
That may be the joke you were making, I’m not sure, but I hardly see the difference.
Aaron
The weird part about this, and I am pretty sure I am not alone here, is that I don’t give a damn about the affair. That is between Ensign and his family.
It is the blatant hypocrisy of the whole thing that pisses me off. It seems people like Ensign think governing is a joke, or a game in which you try to score points.
Comrade Dread
Or the RNC could hire a few hot actors (or prostitutes) and have them hit on the perspective candidate.
If he doesn’t take the bait, send a couple young male interns over.
If he still doesn’t take the bait, then he can run.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Comrade Dread: I think you’ve left our several genders, plus you haven’t even mentioned diapers yet.
Don’t give up so easy, sheeesh.
The Saff
Yeah, Jed at DailyKos just posted about the Fox News letter from Ensign’s ex-staffer.
And I’m with Aaron. I don’t care about the affair; it’s the blatant hyposcrisy and the improper staffer/boss relationship. At my company, all of his is a major violation of our code of business conduct and would be cause for dismissal on the part of both parties.
Tom65
I thought W had already staked out the Rumspringa angle with regards to his alcoholism and drug use.
Mike G
But the Greedy Old Perverts’ sheeple are all about the shallow *image* of clean living — few of them really seem to care if their cardboard-cutout candidates actually live up to the image in real life.
This is how WW2 draft dodger/multiple divorcee and substance abuser John Wayne became an exemplar of war-fighting manliness and family values. Why they keep falling for transparent charlatan-huckster televangelists like Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson. Or why Bush wasn’t laughed off the stage for his Potemkin ranch and ridiculous Village People aircraft carrier photo op.
brian griffin
naaah, they won’t need to go that far.
If we could just outlaw all immoral behavior, then our GOP congressmen would, obviously, clean up their act. Damn liberals keep getting in the way, though, forcing extra-marital affairs on them by keeping them legal.
thank God the Dems got on board with DOMA, or there would be no straight married Republicans left by now.
Joshua Norton
Right wing family “values” are like right wing religious beliefs. Something to be inflicted on someone else, not observed by them personally.
There’s a word for that, but it’s beat to death to the point of being meaningless, so I’m thinking we need a newer, better one.
PeopleAreNoDamnGood
If your plan re-establishes God’s Dominion Of Justice Over the Earth, then I am all for it.
GregB
Fox News, with unprecedented access to the Sen. Ensign cuckold affair….
Cha…chung……
I’m Megan Kelly reporting from John Ensigns’ nutsack.
What a pack of clowns.
-G
Tonal Crow
@Mike G:
And then comes the ever-ready excuse, “We Christians ain’t perfect, just forgiven!”
Ed in NJ
So some of you don’t care about the affair? You think that senators should be allowed to pursue sexual relationships with their subordinates? That seems to bring up alot of questions regarding sexual harassment in my book. Hampton in his letter suggests Ensign was told to stop the relationship but refused. I wonder what the consequences of leaving him would have been to the wife?
We aren’t talking about an innocent affair with the neighbor’s wife (although that’s also true, and the kids go to school together). I know some people here like to throw around “between him and his family” line to sound liberal. But this isn’t the time for that bullshit.
LD50
Unless you’re still just a teenager, please don’t say you just now figured that out.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Too risky. DC has gay marriage, now. It’d be hard to get out of one of those in time to rush to DOMA’s defense, and even in Washington some of the press isn’t stupid enough to let gay-marriage divorces defend DOMA without highlighting the hypocrisy. Better to keep those homersexual feelings buried deep down inside, where they can plug the God-shaped hole and put a righteous fire in your belly.
Chuck Butcher
It seems there were some raises and job opportunities associated with the affair. That has a bad smell. Whether that would annoy the winger voters is open to question. The ethics of it might just be beyond their narrow concept of gays and abortion…
gopher2b
In other news, I think Obama’s first actual real foreign policy problem is coming soon with regard to N. Korea. Some scary, scary stuff in the news the past few days.
jake 4 that 1
Why would you want to deprive us of the spectacle of yet another holy blowhard being exposed as a complete fraud?
Man you’re mean.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Mike G:
Fixed it for you. That’s his real first name, there. The real last name is Morrison, if memory serves, but apparently that sounded a little too Irish for 1940s Hollywood.
jrg
Bingo. It’s not about the truth, it’s about accepting the truth. To them, if you accept something as true, you’re condoning it.
Kind of like evolution: they are not interested in the fact that it’s supported by evidence. They are far more interested in citing acceptance of the theory as a reason for everything from meth abuse and divorce to the holocaust museum shooting.
Granted, no scientist has ever stated that evolution must lead to holocaust museum shootings, but that’s the kind of thing that they tell each other, therefore even acknowledging the facts involved is exactly the same as being guilty of a crime.
In their world, it’s fine to lie, as long as you feel good about it. It’s all very tribal, self-centered, and sick.
Aaron
@LD50:
Nah, I am getting close to 30. I am just constantly disappointed by the fact that our electoral process puts nothing but ass-holes and hypocrites in charge of governing the nation.
KG
@Aaron:
I’ve recently come to the conclusion that anyone who held elected or appointed (administrative or executive, not judicial) office in Washington during the 1990s needs to be kindly thanked for their service and then politely asked to move on.
Zifnab
@Ed in NJ:
If this really was sexual harassment run a muck, then it should be treated like sexual harassment run a muck. But Ensign is a Senator and one of the perks of being a Senator is being above the law, whether you’re taking bribes from building contractors or having sex with oil lobbyists.
The reason he’s being grilled is because he cheated on his wife. And, for that at least, the argument is that it shouldn’t matter. If he’s doing his job as a Senator, who cares where he sticks his dick? Of course, if he’s a misogynist prick who forces himself on women for his own gratification, that’s another story entirely. But then we wouldn’t care whether he was doing that married or single.
MattF
I’m starting to think that getting caught with your pants down is just part of the drill for conservatives. Unlike, e.g., Spitzer– who actually appeared to feel that he’d done something seriously wrong in having a go with a high-priced prostitute, Ensign thinks that screwing a co-worker’s wife is really just a lapse that needs to be put into a larger perspective.
MikeJ
Having an R after your name immunizes you from wingnut wrath. You can skullfuck puppies on live TV iyar.
JasonF
Completely off topic, but I saw this article and it just pissed me off to no end:
These are the same Republicans who, when Speaker Pelosi went to Syria the other year, threw a hissy and claimed she was feloniously undermining the Department of State’s policy in violation of the Logan Act. These people do not have a single ounce of shame.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are such a bunch of craven pussies too frightened that a Republican will accuse them of being soft on terror that they went along. Do they really think that voting in favor of this resolution will give a single rightwinger even a moment’s pause before attacking the Democrats as weak on security?
Fuck all of them.
Don
No we don’t. We are on the path to RECOGNIZING gay marriages performed elsewhere, but we do not as yet have any way for same-sex couples to get married.
There’s talk and movement (along with opposition organization forming, primarily from Maryland) but nothing yet.
anonevent
@Ed in NJ: I care about the fact that he had an affair, but I don’t think an affair in and of itself rises to the level of requiring action by the government. Affairs are not criminal acts.
What I am all for is his opponent during the next election making every commercial about it. Let the voters decide if his hypocrisy and cheating makes him a worthwhile representative.
Brachiator
@Ed in NJ:
Since you put it that way, my answer is yes. But then again, I’m shallow. As this thing has unfolded, I kept wondering what the staffer looked like.
Most consenting adults are fully capable of having mutually satisfying relationships, without harassment entering the picture.
Some of the reports have suggested that blackmail was involved. I’m curious to see how this plays out.
Otherwise, this is just another case of hypocritical Republicans getting snared in their own hyper-moral nonsense.
latts
@Joshua Norton:
Exactly– GOPers don’t have to be family-values adherents as long as they promise to act as enforcers… or even better, just promise their base free rein to do the enforcing bit.
Part of this dismissal of hypocrisy is justified by Ensign’s higher status, although his behavior’s somewhat more questionable even by wingnut standards because the woman was married. Powerful men can generally take what they want, after all… no one will say outright that the rules simply don’t apply to the privileged among us, but I guarantee that some of the wingnut apologists will fixate on the husband’s employment-as-payment, saying (implicitly or explicitly) that a man who needs his wife’s lover’s help to earn a living deserves to be cheated on, etc.
Zifnab
@KG:
Fix’d.
john b
dan savage was suggesting that from the wording of some of ensign’s statements and the fact that all four of those involved (ensign and wife and the his staff member and wife) are all friends, that it might not be simple cheating. he’s thinking that there could have been complicit swinging and then the (now obvious) blackmail.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@jrg:
The Republicans are correct. Without evolution, there would’ve been no humans; without humans, no Holocaust, no Holocaust museum, and no Holocaust museum shooting.
Evolution is to blame for all the problems.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Don:
Me culpa. I guess it’s still a safe town for closeted Republican lobbyists. But, for how long?
Jay in Oregon
@JasonF:
Complete with a paean to Saint Ronald Reagan, to boot. *headdesk*
blogenfreude
@Brachiator: I believe that’s her on the right.
cervantes
Hey, it’s only been about 11 years since Blowjobgate.
So when are the Republicans going to move to expel Ensign from the Senate?
Ha ha ha .
gopher2b
Totally worth flushing your “Presidential” ambitions down the toilet.
Yikes. When will these guys learn. If you have an affair with an attractive woman, no one cares. They actually like you more. It seems like a win/win to me.
TenguPhule
Actually, yes they are in some states.
Colette
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
Then the present Republican leadership, as some of the world’s least evolved hominids, are therefore by definition pure as the driven snow and should be restored by popular acclaim to the world leadership that is their birthright. Right?
Napoleon
@john b:
Now that would be a story!
TenguPhule
<blockquote.Since you put it that way, my answer is yes. But then again, I’m shallow.
No, you’re an idiot who should never be on any jury involving superiors abusing their powers over others.
Bosses do not diddle the hired help.
jrg
No, stating that would require acceptance of evolution, which the flat-earthers won’t do.
What they’ve been saying (I’m too busy to look it up now) is that acceptance of evolution means that we have no reason to behave any better than feces-hurling rhesus monkeys.
In the case of Ensign, they feel compelled to ignore the affair because to acknowledge it might mean they would become Dems. Next thing you know, they will be organizing neighborhood sex parties.
TenguPhule
How I hate thee, WordPress.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Colette:
Yes. The more evolution has affected you, the worse you are.
Is there any way we can elect some sort of unicellular organism to be our President? I’d trust them more than I trust that HUSSEIN Obama guy.
jake 4 that 1
The larger perspective being it didn’t involve trying to coerce your wife into having sex in front of an audience, assault and battery on a mistress, dirty IMs to teens, sex with strangers in a toilet stall or adult diapers.
Like Wonkette said, boning an employee is downright dull.
If you’re a Republican.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@jrg:
Except microevolution, like when a new subspecies of fruit fly is created. Or when Democrats devolve into the Hellbound. Microevolution is very, very real.
I’d actually have to take the rhesus monkeys over most of the conservative leadership, in terms of manners and propriety.
If those stupid Democrats and Communists and scientists would stop having sex with monkeys, this debate would be moot.
demimondian
@Brachiator: I’ll bet you’ve never been the victim of sexual harassment.
Political Pragmatist
I felt the same way almost 25 years ago. Nothing has changed, not even the party. The conservatives have been in charge your whole life. I feel bad for you, not ever knowing how good government can be.
I hope your generation can fix it, because mine broke it.
blogenfreude
@jake 4 that 1: I know – at Stinque, we only awarded this scandal 3/10 diapers on the David Vitter GOP Sex Scandal Scale. Only one guy has managed to score a perfect 10 – Gary Aldridge.
Mike G
“When Ronald Reagan went before the Brandenburg Gate, he did not say Mr. (Mikhail) Gorbachev, that wall is none of our business,” said Pence, R-Ind
I am sick of Repig politicians whose understanding of the world never progressed beyond the comic-book stage, and their bone-stupid followers so shallow and easily impressed by phony images.
Removing the Berlin Wall was US policy reiterated by every US president since it was built in 1961. Along comes Reagan who restates that long-standing policy in macho-cowboy empty swagger and the Repigs swoon like dizzy schoolgirls screaming for the Beatles arriving at the airport.
And in every single political conflict someone has to be Hitler, Chamberlain and Churchill, because it’s all their mouth-breather base can remember from history class. Proud ignorance is no way to go through life, or to run a superpower.
Joshua Norton
Only if you’re not doing it right.
Joshua Norton
Hell, they weren’t sure about Churchill and had never heard of Chamberlain until Rush brought them up. Everything they have to say is lifted directly from 2 of Limpball’s quotes.
gopher2b
@Mike G:
And as East Germans’ began to revolt and momentum started to grow and East Germany started to cave, you know what George I and James Baker did: Nothing. They knew American rhetorical interference would only hurt the cause.
freelancer
—
[Michael catches George-Michael sneaking hard-boiled eggs to George Sr]
Michael Bluth: I think George-Michael is hiding Ann in the attic.
Lindsay Bluth Fünke: From who, the Nazis?
Michael Bluth: No, his girlfriend from me. I just caught him sneaking up to her in the attic and he clearly did so because he thinks I don’t approve. I think I’m gonna invite her to the wake. Why make him hide? Why do to him what… Why do to him what Dad used to do to me?
Lindsay Bluth Fünke: [sobbing] He was so amazing.
Michael Bluth: That was actually an example of how not so amazing he was. You’re really going through something here, huh?
Lindsay Bluth Fünke: I know. You know, it’s funny-all those years when I pretended to cry… I used to use Dad’s death to get me going. I tried it with Mom’s, but I’d just end up smiling and ruining it. But it feels, like, real. You know? And you haven’t really allowed yourself to grieve much at all, Michael.
Michael Bluth: My relationship with Dad was much more-much more complicated than yours. It was predicated a lot on secrets and lies. There wasn’t a lot of trust there.
Tobias Fünke: Here he comes. Here comes John Wayne. I’m not gonna cry about my pa. I’m gonna buy an airport, put my name on it. Why, Michael? So you can fly away from your feelings? You can keep them bottled up, Michael, but they will come out. Sometimes in the most unexpected-
[opens refrigerator and looks inside]
Tobias Fünke: Hey, where the fuck are my hard-boiled eggs?
Phoebe
devil’s playground is the shit!
Tsulagi
While Ensign could be one of the many poster boys for standard Gooper family values hypocrisy, do appreciate the extra little cherry he brought to the table: He’s a Promise Keeper. Bang up job there, dude. Kinda like that Bush Abstinence Czar found on Madame Palfrey’s speed dial. They always bring at least a little something extra to the plate.
Think this or all those fallen R-culture warriors before Ensign would even slow down wingnuts pointing to a Letterman joke as proof of the moral vacuum of those without Promise Keeper rings? Nah.
Brachiator
@demimondian:
Is anyone making the claim of sexual harassment in the Ensign matter?
Sure they do. All the time.
If you are saying that this is inadvisable, OK. If you are saying that this is by definition abuse, then you are peddling a phony morality as obnoxious as the phony morality peddled by some Republicans.
KG
@32: well, that was Plan B.
KG
@40: dollars to donuts says that I could get those laws struck down as unconstitutional on appeal.
Little Dreamer
When a Promise Keeper is found to have been involved in breaking their marriage vow, is there some form of excommunication that is involved? Just curious.
I mean, if there is no excommunication then when they all appeared together, wouldn’t they be “The Sort Of Promise Keepers”?
burnspbesq
@TenguPhule:
Both the law and the behavior are a bit more complicated than that.
Legally, it is OK for co-workers, even bosses and subordinates, to flirt like crazy and fuck like bunnies, so long as it’s consensual and there is no element of quid pro quo.
If it gets out, one of them has to find another job, but that’s sufficiently well known that no one can be surprised by that.
Most corporate sexual harassment policies go far beyond what’s legally required, because it’s so easy for things to get out of hand.
Joshua Norton
Well, he can always strap on a cilice before he flagellates himself. I hear they’re big on that whole pain thing.
P.S. “Flagellate” is not the dirty word you think it is.
TenguPhule
WTF?
Brach are you snorting the same stuff BOB is on?
Abusing employeer employee relations power structure is not abuse? Phony morality?
Do we need to ask how many subordinates you pressured to sleep with you or else risk losing their jobs?
TenguPhule
Bosses diddling subordinates fails the consensual test because its not an equal relationship. Bosses have POWER over the workers.
JFCNTZYM, did you fail basic ethics and law?
TenguPhule
They have to bring enough for everyone else.
asiangrrlMN
@TenguPhule: It’s also criminal. There are laws against this kind of behavior. I’m with TenguPhule on this one. It is just way too easy for a boss to pressure a subordinate to have sex. And believe me, I am no prude.
Again, Tenguphule beat me to it. Take it away, TP.
@Joshua Norton:
I’ll do it for him. He deserves it.
I think the idea of a Republican Rumpspringa is a great one. Or, more realistically, they can just stop shoving their hypocritical morality crap up everyone’s noses, accept that we are sexual beings and not go crazy nuts over it.
demimondian
@burnspbesq: The reason corporate policies go further than required, however, is that the courts have also consistently found that the power imbalance between superior and subordinate makes that coercion- or compensation-free sex more a matter of fantasy than reality.
demimondian
@Brachiator: When you wrote this:
you brought up sexual harassment.
Did Ensign pressure her? God knows — and He has not spoken to me on the matter, so I have no way of knowing myself.
demimondian
@TenguPhule: Calm down, man. Burns is thinking like a lawyer (even if he is not giving legal advice, etc., etc.)
And, frankly, he’s right — *in principle*, there’s no legal bar to employees finding a quiet corner of the office and getting into a compromising position during the afternoon coffee break. In practice, however, that’s banned by every employer in the United States because of the likelihood that things will go sour.
burnspbesq
@TenguPhule:
That’s a value judgment. It may be a value judgment that I share, but based on what employment lawyers tell me, it’s not the law.
What about situations where the subordinate makes the first move? How does your construct deal with that?
Or suppose that someone who used to work for me indicates an interest in a relationship. In my practice area, everybody in the world who does it knows everybody else; if she goes looking for a job, I may get called to give a reference. In your world, is she off limits forever?
burnspbesq
@demimondian:
I’ve been practicing so long, I’m not sure I know any other way to think. Kinda pathetic, innit?
David
Wow, Don Surber completely deleted his “Fox News made Ensign come clean” blog post.
The title is still up on “Memorandum”
I’ve never seen any blogger do this.
That how Republicans and Fox News deal with embarrassments to Republicans… OMISSION.
David
Wow, Don Surber completely deleted his “Fox News made Ensign come clean” blog post.
The title is still up on “Memorandum”
I’ve never seen any blogger do this.
Google, “Fox News made Ensign come clean”
That how Republicans and Fox News deal with embarrassments to Republicans… OMISSION.
Little Dreamer
From reading the letter of the husband (on the GOS), it sounds to me like this situation went on for a while. He claims it totally broke his family apart and they are having a hard time putting it back together. That doesn’t sound like non-consent to me.
Ensign is a power broker. He’s fairly high up in the Republican echelon. He’s fairly young, fairly handsome. I can see how someone would be overwhelmed and feel smitten by attention from such a person.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
I asked BOB for a sample of his drugs, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
Not always. You seem to be saying that because of the power structure involved, an adult subordinate could never give consent to a sexual relationship. This infantilizes the subordinate.
Yep. But maybe there is something we can all learn from here. Is there a law on the books anywhere which makes sexual behavior between and employer and employee per se criminal?
Do we need to ask if you really believe that everyone’s views of ethics is entirely determined by their personal experience?
No, I didn’t. But this still begs the question. You made the irrelevant statement: “I’ll bet you’ve never been the victim of sexual harassment.”
What does this have to do with Ensign? If you don’t know whether he pressured her, and if she is not making any claim that he pressured her, then why is the issue on your mind at all?
Yep. That’s it. And in the real world, people happily violate the employer prohibitions.
b-psycho
How come it’s always guys? Just once I wanna see a Republican congresswoman get exposed cheating on her husband.
Delia
@b-psycho:
Umm, everyone’s afraid of Michelle Bachmann?
burnspbesq
@b-psycho:
Have you seen the current crop of Republican congresswomen? I’d like to think I’ve never been that drunk.
Ed in NJ
I brought up sexual harassment, because if you read Hampton’s letter, he confronted Ensign about the relationship in February, and Ensign refused to end the relationship until August. That to me brings up the issue of how the relationship was allowed to continue in secret. We know there were financial considerations to the wife and son, but how do we know threats weren’t made against his employment? There’s enough there to warrant further investigation.
Brachiator
@b-psycho:
There was a site which had articles about the hypocritical Bill Clinton bashers. A few tidbits:
REP HELEN CHENOWETH (R-Id.): — In her 1998 campaign, Chenoweth admitted to a six-year adulterous affair with a married associate. In 1995, Chenoweth had denied the affair when asked about it by The Spokane Spokesman-Review, but now she claims a pardon from a higher authority: “I’ve asked for God’s forgiveness, and I’ve received it,” she revealed.
REP SUE MYRICK (R-NC): — Myrick describes herself as a “devout Christian.” In 1989, Myrick was running for a second term as Charlotte mayor when news reports revealed that she committed adultery with a married man in 1973. Myrick admitted the adultery and won reelection.
Jager
A guy I know joined Promise Keepers, he was so into it that after about 12 months his wife left him. He since has remarried to a woman who was one of his brother Promise Keepers wife…from what I heard, they met at a convention, started an affair, the marriage broke up, they married and are still in the club…gosh I wonder what Coach McCartney thinks?
Justhowitis
Well, the media and Dems have been sitting on the Rep. Loretta Sanchez adultery story for a year now. This is a bi-partisan game. Google: loretta sanchez scandal. See this recent post–http://latinopoliticsblog.com/2009/06/02/the-making-of-the-%E2%80%9Cloretta-sanchez-scandal%E2%80%9D/
Brachiator
@Ed in NJ:
When I read that there were allegations of blackmail, one of the things that occurred to me was the long tradition of men willingly pimping their wives to curry political favor or social status. One of the most notorious examples of this was the scandal involving Alexander Hamilton and Maria Reynolds:
I am not saying that this was part of the Ensign mess, only pointing out that life and sexual relationships are often more complicated than we sometimes suspect, or are willing to admit.
burnspbesq
We need Congress to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to cover testosterone.
HyperIon
@David:
But Don is SPECIAL.
BTW he used to comment here before the lefties took over.
Krista once advised him to lose the dorky tie in his website pic…which made me laugh out loud. But even without the dorky tie, he’s still be 100% idiot.