June 17, 2009 - Pensito

Yesterday, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the fourth-ranking member of the Senate leadership, admitted that he had an affair with a staffer, whose husband also worked for him.

Ensign, an evangelical Christian and vocal moralizer against gay marriage, was said to be planning to run for president in 2012. He will also be up for reelection to the Senate that year.

Ensign was separated from his wife in December 2007 when he began the affair, reportedly with Cynthia Hampton, a campaign staffer whose husband Dough worked on Ensign’s Senate staff:

[Cynthia Hampton] served as the treasurer for Ensign’s reelection campaign and for his leadership fund, Battle Born PAC. According to people familiar with the matter, Ensign’s affair with Hampton took place between December 2007 and August 2008. FEC records show that she ended her affiliation with the two committees in early 2008.

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.

Politico also reports that Ensign may have come forward about his adultery because the Hamptons were trying to extort money from him.

Citing an anonymous source, the AP reports that Ensign also had an extramarital affair in 2002.

[…]

Day: June 17, 2009

GOP Sen. Ensign, Gay Marriage Opponent, Outs Himself As an Adulterer

Quotes du Jour

He has no credibility left.

— Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), quoted in the Las Vegas Sun in 1998, urging Bill Clinton to resign after he admitted an extramarital affair.

I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions.

— Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), admitting he had an extramarital affair with a member of his campaign staff who was married to an employee in his Senate office. Ensign has been testing the waters for a possible presidential bid in 2012.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”