(Reuters/Steve Marcus)
I'm not sure if John Ensign thinks he couldn't have picked a better time or a worse time to bid adieu to the United States Senate, but it definitely couldn't have been any sadder:
In the end, none of Sen. John Ensign’s colleagues came to hear his farewell speech on Monday. The Nevada Republican stood mostly alone in the empty chamber—a familiar feeling for him over the past two years since a sex scandal threw him headlong into an embarrassing ethics investigation and derailed his promising political career.
This reminds me of Newt Gingrich delivering late-night speeches on a barren House floor so that he could preen for C-SPAN. If only a modern-day Tip O'Neill had ordered the cameras to sweep the empty chamber for Ensign's announcement yesterday as well! Ensign's speech was as laughable as it was sad:
But Ensign also warned his fellow senators—none of whom joined him on the Senate floor—not to surround themselves with “yes” men.
“My caution to all of my colleagues,” he said, “is to surround yourself with people who will be honest with you about how you really are and what you are becoming, and then make them promise to not hold back, no matter how much you may try to prevent them, from telling you the truth.”
I realize this might sound like a political death-bed conversion, but don't be fooled: Ensign is just wrapping his web of lies around himself more tightly. How do I know this? Because he went on to say that, after experiencing his own scandal, he apologized to Larry Craig (he of the airport men's room sexcapade) for calling on him to resign. Evidently, John Ensign thinks that two wrongs do in fact make a right.
Fortunately for us, Ensign's long series of wrongs are finally turning into a right: He's now gone, his resignation effective today—a sad end for a corrupt man. We won't have John Ensign to kick around anymore, and for once, that's a good thing.