John Ensign has released a statement announcing* the creation of a new Christian men's group, Promise Breakers, which is modeled after the Christian men's group Promise Keepers but seeks to serve politicians who espouse morality to get elected but still want to enjoy a long torrid affair with a good friend's hot wife.
Promise Breakers’ mission is to to ignite and unite men who have become cheaters who will change their world through living out their adolescent fantasies. Promise Breakers’ vision is simply put in three words: “Marriages Transformed Worldwide.”
(*Note: Apparently, it may be that I, not Sen. Ensign, put out this announcement; it does look what I Photoshopped today—and it's a printer-friendly 5x7! Just in case, I'm copyrighting it. Permission cheerfully to be granted to most upon request.)
Please do read on—at least til the part about the felony.
And now it's time to get serious.
First, please, everyone with the slightest interest, read Patrick Coolican's article in the esteemed Las Vegas Sun for background. He links to the interview that Nevada Uberpundit John Ralston did with Doug Hampton, the longtime friend that Ensign cuckolded and humiliated like a serf, then strangely accused of blackmail. This was Hampton's first interview; judge for yourself.
It's been a big Ensign day here today, and everyone is picking their own favorite nuggets out of the story. RandySF beat me to the Coolican article last night (I had already posted); for him, the story (which Coburn denies, in a way that digs him deeper into trouble) is that Sen. Tom Coburn, his DC roommate and fellow (albeit apparently more serious) ultra-religious devotee, told him to pay off the Hamptons and relocate them to Colorado. Coburn, who is a bit unclear on the concept of privileged communications (and waivers of such privilege) agrees that did tell Ensign to end the affair -- which Ensign emphatically did not.
BarbinMD mines two juicy nuggets for two front page stories, one that Ensign pursued Cynthia Hampton while she and her husband were staying as guests in their house along with Ensign's wife and kids (which at the least is declasse -- please talk to Mark Sanford about how to "hike the Appalachian Trail" more sensitively, Senator!) and that he wrote his lover a long letter of remorse while evidently keeping his fingers crossed, as the affair continued for six more months.
Now, Jed Lewison notes on the front page that Ensign arranged for his parents -- because when you're engaged in something this tawdry, why not implicate your parents? -- to write checks totaling $96,000 (as gifts, because their hearts, like their cups, runneth over) to the Hamptons.
All of this is good -- each of these stories deserves telling. But, guys, we have to talk about the possible felony! Here's what Coolican has to say:
Hampton said Ensign paid the woman more than $25,000 in severance when she stopped working for the senator.
If true, Ensign faces a possible felony violation of campaign finance law if he paid the severance but failed to report it as an in-kind contribution to the campaign committees where she worked, according to ethics complaints filed against him.
Knowingly and willfully failing to report a contribution of more than $25,000 is a criminal violation subject to five years in prison, according to complaints filed last month by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Campaign reports show no such in-kind payment from Ensign to either his personal campaign committee or his Battle Born leadership Political Action Committee, according [to] CREW, which filed complaints June 24 with the Federal Elections Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee.
Melanie Sloan of CREW () said: “This is exactly what we alleged. The FEC will certainly be asking questions.”
You have to read Coolican's article for the additional details that Fair Use doesn't permit me to include.
The portrait here is of a Senator who is reckless, entitled, and -- perhaps more than anything else -- arrogant as hell. He really thought that his friend of decades should suck it up and accept the cuckolding, even after he had written his letter of contrition due to the intervention held by Tom Coburn and others, because -- well, he was the Senator! He was good looking! He deserved it!
And all that religious morality and ethics? That was for the little people.
Nevada Governor and accused sexual predator Jim Gibbons -- who makes John Ensign look like Tom Coburn -- is the last person I would ever want to see making an appointment to the U.S. Senate, especially given the possibility that he might appoint himself. Nevertheless, it's a risk we have to take; Senator Ensign: it's time for you to resign. Sadly for you, someone has already come up with a 5x7 poster about this that people might enjoy.