Gift Card Deal Raises More Questions for Senator John Ensign

[sabra]

Source: las vegas now

WASHINGTON -- As Senator John Ensign's affair was ripping apart his staff and damaging two marriages, Doug Hampton began a plan.

Later called "this gift card deal," in late April of 2008, Hampton shared his plan for prepaid gift card donations for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This was at the same time Hampton was leaving Ensign's office months after the senator admitted privately to an affair with Hampton's wife, Cindy.

In an email titled "The Best Laid Plans," Hampton tells a prepaid credit card company executive his resignation would be happening within days, but that he was excited for a job. Hampton wanted to use his experience in Washington to help the company and the NRSC.

"We may want to consider a trip to Washington together to visit the NRSC and show them what tools and assets you can provide for their upcoming demands this year," he wrote the executive.

...

Two weeks later, news of Hampton's plan begins to coalesce. Mike Slanker, a long-time Ensign loyalist and then political director of the NRSC, wanted lawyers with Federal Election Commission experience to looking over "their side of this gift card deal."

FEC rules are strict when it comes to donations and contribution limits. Money given to the NRSC is capped, meaning no one person can give an unlimited amount to the committee.

Read more: http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=12260394

[Dr.Phool]

1. "The best laid what!"

I'm not even gonna go there.